Scorose - New Year's Eve
by WICELA
Summary: The air darkened again and Rose Weasley is the lawyer of the wrong party. This causes her to deal with death treats and worse everywhere she goes. While she wasn't totally okay with having an Auror as bodyguard, she accepted Auror Potter to move in with her. At her last day of work of the year, Auror Malfoy shows up at her place. That New Year's Eve could become life-changing...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only thing I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.  
**A/N**: This first chapter was firstly meant to be an OS. This means that there is a lot happening in this chapter. The next chapters will be more quiet. Also, if you don't want to read the whole story, you can read the first chapter as OS.  
**Beta**: Codename Jellybean (ff)  
**Last edited**: June 16 (2015)

* * *

"Morning Weasley! Nice to see you in such a chippy mood!" Scorpius Malfoy was walking into her office.  
"Bugger off, Malfoy. I thought Albus said he would come?" Rose Weasley was sitting behind her deks and hoped that Al would appear behind Malfoy's back, saying: 'HA, you totally bought it, didn't you?' But none of that.  
"He has taken the day off. Boy drama," Scorpius answered and Rose groaned. She already hated this day _without_ Malfoy being around.  
"Again?" she muttered quietly. She moved some papers on her desk to the left when Scorpius decided that he didn't want to be ignored.  
"So, and who are you going to kiss on New Year's Eve?" He gave her his famous 'I'm Scorpius Malfoy'-smirk, but Rose just rolled her eyes.  
"Shut your mouth and let me do my job, Malfoy. Your job will be a lot easier too if you do so," she said, hoping that he would get the hint.  
"I'm just making the best of it!" He protested, but after that he kept his mouth shut. Rose had given him a look and he certainly didn't want to see what would happen if he didn't do it.

Since Rose became one of the best wizard lawyers of the time, and therefor had to defend the new generation of Death Eaters, she wasn't able to live safely. According to the law, everyone deserved a voice in the courtyard, and thereby a lawyer, but according to the people, Rose was a traitor. They thought that if she was dead, this new Death Eater group wouldn't be able to defend themselves, and would straight go to Azkaban. Some other people took that as a challenge.

"Sooooo I just have to sit here and wait for some people to attack me?" Scorpius asked, when he decided it would be safe to talk.  
"Grab a book if you like," was all Rose answered, concentrating on her case again.

It wasn't Rose's fault that she had to defend them, so the Ministry decided they would find an Auror to protect her. Rose was very angry at this at first. She didn't need a babysitter! She had been in the top three in her DADA class — defeated by Albus and Scorpius. In spite of that, she decided to make the best of it. When Auror Potter, better known as Al, walked into her living room, Rose couldn't be happier. They hadn't spent much time together since they both left Hogwarts, and now they would have the chance to catch up.

"Well, I must say Weasley, you look better than all those years back in Hogwarts." Scorpius closed his book and winked at her.  
"And you're still the same pain in the ass, shamefully," Rose replied, turning a page. She quickly grabbed her pencil to underline the words she was reading. That name, that phrase, she needed her.  
"I try to be nice, you know, for Al's sake," he tapped with his finger on the book. Rose knew that he was asking for her attention, but she didn't want to give him the satisfaction.  
"Just keep your mouth shut!" she said for the second time. It wasn't only because he was a pain in the ass, but also because she needed to concentrate. This piece...this was important.

_Mary Dolohov (halfblood) - bastard daughter of Antonin Dolohov (wizard, pureblood) and Jenn Daisy (muggle) - is the leader of the Knights of Walpurgis._ Rose underlined Antonin Dolohov and decided it would be time to talk to her father about this guy.

"Ey, Weasley, where is your boyfriend?" Scorpius sounded…almost nice, but Rose didn't buy it. _Concentrate Rose_, she said to herself.  
"I said: SHUT YOUR MOUTH!"

The truth was that Nick Finch-Fletchley had broken up with her. Rose wasn't that sad about it - he had been very clingy. He totally agreed with the Ministry that she needed an Auror to protect her, but when he heard that Albus's back-up was Scorpius Malfoy, he decided that _that_ wasn't going to happen. Rose didnt mind at the time - she didn't like the thought of Malfoy around her either - but later on she realized why exactly Nick had hated this idea. At the time it was very complicated, but in short, Nick had been so afraid of her cheating on him that he cheated on her. And that brought her here. Very single and no Nick if Albus wouldn't show up. Which was why Malfoy was here.  
Rose realized too, that she should've seen it coming. She should've known that Albus wouldn't come. The day before the two of them had been talking about his boyfriend-drama and Albus wasn't very happy that they were broken up again. They kept breaking up, because Albus was afraid to tell his parents his sexuality - although they're already suspecting it. Rose hoped that she finally got through him, because all this drama wasn't good for him - and her.

:: :: ::

While reading her case, Rose realized that the names that were written down wouldn't be new for Scorpius. Antonin Dolohov, Thorfinn Rowle, Walden Macnair. His father and grandfather had been...working with those men. And now all those men had bastard children everywhere. All of them turned out to be half-bloods. Half-bloods who wanted to finish what their fathers - and so Voldemort - had started. It wasn't exactly written down like that - that would cause an one-way ticket to Azkaban - but everyone knew that it actually was exactly like that and Rose Weasley was defending them.

"A bit ironic this is, isn't it?" Rose said all over sudden. She stood up and walked with her mug out of her office.  
"What exactly?" he asked, following her. He closed his book and Rose saw that he'd really been reding in the book she gave him. A soft smile appeared on her face as she walked into the kitchen.  
"Coffee?" she suggested, knowing that he knew this particularly muggle-treat.  
"Yes, please," He answered and she grabbed a mug for him out of her cupboard.  
"Milk, sugar?" She asked, while she set coffee with the device her Granny Granger had given her.  
"No thanks," Scorpius said, still curious of what she had to say. Rose pushed a button and the device made a sound. She turned around when she began to speak.  
"Well, I'm in this case, where I'm defending the new generation of Death Eaters. I defend them, while I'm the daughter of the people, who fought against Voldemort, and you protect me, as the son of an ex-Death Eater." She gave him his mug when the device was done, and walked back into her office.  
"I'm simply doing my job, Weasley. Like you do. Like our parents did," Scorpius answered, but he wasn't that nice anymore. What she'd done, she didn't know, but she nodded, and sat down behind her desk.

"How late am I going to be done?" He asked annoyed. Rose saw he was halfway through her book. He was a quick-reader. She knew that already, she realized. At Hogwarts, he'd been quick too. Perhaps she could just send him home when he was done reading her book.  
"Soon, I hope. My parents invited me at six and I can probably be there at five and they wouldn't mind. So four more hours, I think," she answered therefore.  
"Who are you going to kiss at New Year's Eve?" Scorpius asked, being his annoying-self again.  
"Perhaps that question would be as interesting as who _aren't_ you going to kiss at New Year's Eve?" Rose striked back.  
"Well that would be easy. You," he smirked and she almost slapped him. The thought why she felt offended, really made her stop from doing it. Why did she felt offended anyways? She should've been happy he didn't want to kiss her.  
"I told you before: shut your mouth Malfoy. Otherwise you won't kiss _anyone_ at New Year's Eve," she answered, instead of the slap. Not really the calm remark she wanted to make, but with the discussion going on in her head, she couldn't handle herself.  
"Ouch, Weasley. After you gave me coffee, I thought we were beginning to become friends." He didn't mean it, Rose knew, because he still felt offended by her remark.  
"You and I can never be friends, Malfoy. Way to complicated." With that, Scorpius stole her _Daily Prophet_, and Rose continued researching her case.

:: :: ::

"Five o'clock. Malfoy, time to bugger off," Rose decided. She was done with his remarks on everything in the _Daily Prophet_ and hated the fact that she slowly began to like the fact he wasn't one-of-a-kind — like Nick.  
"I got the instructions, to bring you to a place where you would be safe and with other people, so you just have to wait for a few more minutes," Scorpius answered. Rose grumbled and walked into her bedroom.  
"DON'T YOU DARE TO COME IN!" she shouted, while closing the door. After she put her dress on and opened her curtains, she was shocked.  
"DAMN MERLIN!" she shouted again, but this time not because of Scorpius.  
"AM I ALLOWED TO COME IN NOW?" he shouted back. Well, perhaps he_was_ doing his job.  
"NO. I'M COMING ALREADY!" Rose opened her door and walked to her living room, dragging Malfoy along.  
"Look at _that_!" She pointed at the white area outside.  
"That, Weasley, is called snow," Scorpius answered dryly.  
"Yes of course it is, but we can't floo here, apparating is too dangerous for me, and I can't walk out of my house, because I'm snowed in." It wasn't the first time Rose cursed herself for not having a fireplace.  
"So now you don't have a New Year's party, what a pity," Scorpius answered, clearly not realizing what this really meant.  
"Well, you haven't got one too, because you're not allowed to leave either." Scorpius swore when he realized she was right, and breathed in and out.  
"I need coffee," he said, and Rose rolled her eyes. She made some hot chocolate for herself, as they sat there on her couch.  
"I must say, I didn't expect to ever sit here on your couch," Scorpius grinned.  
"How funny you are. I'm going to send my family a patrones, so they won't have to worry." Rose stood up and thought about how she was going to survive this.  
"I'll send one, much safer," Scorpius interrupted her and walked away.

After a few seconds he was back and sat there again. On her couch. With her hot chocolate.  
"Nice house you have," he said emotionless.  
"I'm not going to be nice to you," Rose said stubbornly.  
"C'mon, we're going to celebrate New Year's Eve together! Be a bit nice, Rose!" It was the first time she heard him saying 'Rose' when she was around. According to Albus, he sometimes called her Rose, too, when they were talking about her – Rose was especially curious, why they were talking about her, until she realized, he was Malfoy and not the time thinking about worthy.  
"Shut your mouth," she answered.  
"Please tell me, you got at least some food?" he begged.  
"No! I would celebrate it at home, why should I?" Rose actually didn't know if she had some food, but if she had, he would be the last person to share it with.  
"It's a bit pathetic, you still celebrate New Year's Eve at home, isn't it?" His remark came out of nothing, and was full of judgements.  
"Perhaps for you it is, for me it's traditional. Everyone eat dinner at their homes and at nine o'clock we would all go to the Burrow to celebrate it there," Rose defended.  
"And I imagine that everyone of your family is always present?" He said like it was that predictable. Like her family was just _that_ predictable.  
"Vic and Teddy weren't a few years ago, because they were on their honeymoon. The year after, they wanted to spend it with their own little family, and nowadays, they spent it with us again. Also, you can say anything you want, about Do and Roxy, but they're the most loyal of us all. They are always there at New Year's Eve. Boy drama or no boy drama. Albus is mostly there for a few seconds, and than goes, because of Eric. James, Fred and Louis take their birds with them, until uncle Harry and Bill got upset with them about it. Uncle George wasn't upset at all, but they decided, they were all allowed to take two girls with them. James came rarely after that incident, but came last year with his actual girlfriend. Fred comes and goes the whole time and Louis got himself a girlfriend too, but celebrates it with her family. Molly and Lucy would rather read books, instead of celebrating New Year's Eve, but they walk in, just in time to say 'Happy New Year.' Lily and Hugo sometimes celebrate it with their friends, instead of with the family. And…that's all, I think?" Rose shut her mouth, realizing she had been rambling about her family again. To Scorpius Malfoy of all people.  
"And you?" he asked, like she didn't bore him.  
"Me? I celebrated it with Nick for a long time, but yeah, not anymore," she answered.  
"Nick?" He knew Nick. Rose knew, that he knew Nick, and he also knew, that Nick had been her boyfriend.  
"Nick as in Nick Finch-Fletchley, reporter of the Daily Prophet?" Scorpius grinned.  
"You wouldn't want to be called Nick Finch-Fletchley Weasley anyways," he added and Rose rolled her eyes. Marrying Nick wasn't something she wanted to think about and she didn't even want to think about why Scorpius thought that.  
"Yeah, and I wouldn't want a boyfriend overprotecting, like he was. Did you never wonder, why you never had to fill in before? I mean, we both know that Albus isn't _that_ serious at work, when Eric and he got in some trouble again," Rose laughed softly.  
"Well, I forgot until this morning that I was actually Albus back-up. Also, it might have slipped your attention, but I asked you earlier today where your boyfriend was," Scorpius raised a brow, pointing out that this time she wouldn't go away with it.  
"_Ex_-boyfriend, thank you very much. He was so protecting and jealous, that he didn't want you to protect me. Why he was afraid of that, I always wondered. Why would he think I would hook up with…_you_?! If I was going to cheat, I would do it with Frank Longbottem, or so. Or perhaps I wouldn't. Frank would hate me, and Helga would hit me really hard, and I wouldn't have friends anymore," Rose rambled.  
"Who's Helga?" Scorpius asked curiosly. Rose looked surprised up. So of all the stuff she'd been rambling about he asked her about Helga? And he didn't remember her? Helga and she might've been the only two girls in Hogwarts who didn't want to date Scorpius.  
"Really, did you ever attend Hogwarts? Remember we were always fighting? Helga Jordan? Daughter of the best friend of my uncle George? Helga, daughter of one of the owners of Weasley Wizard Wheezes? That Helga?" Rose exclaimed. It was then, that she realized, she was talking with her hands again. She never did that in a casual conversation. She only did that, if she wanted to explain something, or wasn't thinking about it.  
"Tsk, I remember you from Hogwarts - you weren't exactly hard to miss. Plus being friends with your cousin didn't help either. But by any means, that doesn't maen that your friends and I...talked? And how else should I've known them? Do you, for example, know my best friends? Who are they?" Scorpius dared her, and for some reason Rose really wanted to win this dare.  
"Al!" She exclaimed happily.  
"And?" he asked grinning. She didn't saw that coming. She never thought he had other friends than Al, but that was also because she never payed attention to him.  
"I…don't know?" Rose muttered. The thing was, Al had a lot of friends, but his best friends had been Scorpius, Frank and her. She knew how she thought of Scorpius, but never thought about what other people thought of him.  
"That's what I mean. You're no better than me!" Now he was as fiercely as she was just a few seconds ago. It was strange, talking to him like this. They were fiercely, but it wasn't pairing with hate.  
"Well perhaps you're right. So Malfoy, what do you do during New Year's Eve nowadays?" Rose tried to change the subject. Why were they talking about her ex-boyfriend and their friends anyways?  
"With my family and a lot of family friends. Not at home, though. Al has been there sometimes, you know. _With_ Eric, of course." Scorpius rolled his eyes at the last sentence.  
"I don't get it! Why doesn't he just _tell_ his parents he's gay? It's not like they don't know?" Rose answered, agreeing with the fact that Al could be so stupid and completely missing the fact that they were agreeing on something.  
"It's kinda hard for him, you know. His parents do know it, but his mother has been talking about grandchildren as soon as James stayed as 'loyal' as always after Hogwarts. Albus doesn't want to disappoint his mother by saying, he will never get any grandchildren!" Scorpius said, knowing that someone in the room had to defend Al.  
"I know that aunt Ginny has been saying that, and she regretted it the minute she realized, he was gay. Besides: Lily is there too, and she will definitely get children. She will get a whole lot of them. Probably a thousand to begin with," Rose said, defending her point of view.  
"And you?" Scorpius asked. Rose didn't know what to answer.  
"I don't know. First a boyfriend, I hope," she said in the hope to lighten the situation.  
"But you had one, not that long ago. You must have thought about it?" Scorpius pushed. She rolled her eyes.  
"I think I would like to have children some day, but I never wanted to have them with Nick. They wouldn't get the time to breath. Perhaps was that one of the reasons we didn't work." And again, they were talking about her relationship with Nick and even of having _children_. Still, Rose couldn't keep herself from wondering if...  
"Do you want to have children?" she asked bluntly. The only reason her body didn't change into a tomato was because she told herself he was asking her this random questions too. She deserved to ask him a few questions and he could have seen this question coming. He hadn't, obviously, and he blushed a bit.  
"Do I see a blush at the face of the big, beautiful, womanizer Scorpius Malfoy?" The blush was gone and he stirred.  
"So what if I do? So what if I wished I would find a girl that actually likes me?" He answered with defense. He didn't even say anything about her calling him beautiful.  
"It's not strange you would like that. I mean: we're twenty-five for Merlin's sake. Our nesting instincts are taking over," Rose said with some sarcasm. To her surprise, he laughed about that.  
"But seriously, why are you a womanizer, if you don't want to be that?" Rose was actually wondering about that, when he told her he actually wanted only one girl.  
"Because I want people to like me, you know? To know me for other reasons than 'The Ex-Death Eaters-son.' You proved it a few hours ago that I can't walk anywhere without hearing something that has to do with that subject," Scorpius and Rose fnally realized why he felt offended. She bit her lip, knowing that what he had said there was a very good point, but not knowing how to respond.  
"Oops...I'm sorry," she said eventually and he laughed.  
"Well thanks. I accept your apology. I think that, when I started it all, it was just...I stepped into it when I had the chance. It was better to be known as the womanizer than the Ex-Death Eaters-son," he said quietly. Rose liked to see him like that. Soft kind, less flirty, sincere and as the real Scorpius.  
"I get that, you know? Perhaps it's in a different way, but people always see me as the daughter of. The fact that I'm actually a lot like my parents - as loads of people - makes me 'The True Daughter Of,' you know? They don't see me, they see my parents. Everyone just...uses me. And somehwere, being on the other side in this case than everyone expects from me, is just...a relief. Finally I'm doing something nobody expected of me. I disappointed a lot of people by taking this job, but it was smething I had to do to get to the people. I want them to see the real me, not a copy of my parents," Rose said.  
"Yeah, we're different from our parents," Scorpius nodded.  
"Exactly! And I'm not going to accept it anymore! They laughed for a while and sat there on the couch. Quiet, calm and accepting. It wasn't the first time they actually talked without fighting the whole time, but it was finally more than something that always ended in a fight.  
"Hey Rose?" Scorpius asked.  
"Mmmm?" Rose said, while resting her head on his shoulder.  
"Do you think we will ever become friends?" He referred to the sarcastic remark he had made earlier, and her blunt remark.  
"I don't know. Perhaps we already are," she answered in all honesty.

:: :: ::

Rose was opening some cupboards in her kitchen, while singing along with the music Scorpius had found in her living room.  
"YOU NEVER BELIEVE WHAT I'VE FOUND!" she screamed in an instance. When he walked into her kitchen, she did some happy-dance, and pointed at her cupboard.  
"Food!" she said happily. He immediately grabbed it, and began to eat.  
"Hey, me first!" Rose protested. They were behaving like they were friends since kindergarden. They actually knew each other from then — uncle Harry and Teddy's granny had set up a meeting between Teddy and Scorpius. Albus had been there too ,and there was instantly a connection between the two of them. Rose and he had a connection too — it was hate at first sight. It was different now. It seemed like they both were in this same problem, they got over themselves, and finally just talked to each other. Rose had learned his favorite colour — green — and he hers — blue. They were actually having fun, and were decorating Rose's Christmas tree. It was true that Christmas had been over for a few days, but when Scorpius heard that she hadn't had a Christmas tree, he said they could better be late, than do it never. Somewhere in her music-collection were some old Muggle CD's of her mother, who bought it when Rose was really young.  
"DO THEY KNOW IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME AT ALL?" Rose sung along. Sorpius just watcher her and looked at her like she was crazy.  
"What _is_ that?" he asked with horror.  
"Muggle music. Christmas edition. This number is from the eighties, mum told me," Rose said happily. When the next number came, Rose quickly pressed the 'next'-button.  
"What? Why are you skipping that one?" He pressed the 'previous'-button — Rose immediately regretted, that she had explained him how her radio worked.  
"I…..don't want a lot for Christmas…" began the famous words from Mariah Carey. When she was younger, Rose dreamed on this number, that she would celebrate Christmas with her dream guy. She had skipped the number, because it was embarrassing. Scorpius wasn't _that_ bad and she finally got it why all the girls liked him. This number was just…ruining everything.  
"This is…rubbish?" He asked, but when he saw Rose miming the song, he began to listen to the lyrics.  
"ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU!" Her head became bright red and suddenly Rose realized what she was wearing. An old pair of jeans, her fathers Weasley-sweater — it was way to big and thereby the reason she wore it. She wore her comfy socks over her jeans. It was all very charming and when she looked at him, she saw a casual-but-a-bit-formal outfit.  
"I'm…changing. Don't eat all the food. Be right back," she said, choosing to run away from the situation. Mariah Carey was still singing about how she wanted you for Christmas, and the tension in the living room became tenser. Awkward. With Scorpius. Malfoy. Scorpius. No Malfoy. Scorpius. Help?  
Rose found a casual blue sweater, which was warm and properly, and her jeans were replaced by a black pair of trousers. She decided not to wear any shoes, but just socks, because it was just more comfy.  
"Sometimes I forget I need to enjoy some parts of life, instead of just wearing what is lying on the ground," Rose explained, hoping it sounded like she was very busy instead of very lazy. Scorpius smiled at her.  
"It's pretty," he said. Rose blushed and hoped he didn't tell her that, just to be nice.  
"Thanks. I see the Christmas music decided to be over for today?" she chuckled when she heard her favorite band singing about potions.  
"Yeah, well, I used your music player — which _isn't_ Muggle, luckily — to play some songs _I_ know," he laughed. They ate something and the Christmas-music-incident was over, Rose hoped.

At the end of the evening, they watched Rose's clock.  
"Last minute of the year!" She smiled and he smiled, a bit awkward, back. The tension came back and when they counted the last seconds of the year, Rose didn't know what to do. Did she had to kiss him or hug him or do nothing at all?  
"Happy New Year, Rose!" Scorpius said. He smiled at her.  
"Happy New Year, Scorpius!" Rose answered. Awkward. She bit on her lip. Why was she disappointed that he didn't kiss her? Why did she feel this strange feeling inside her? When she looked up, she saw he had been staring to the ground as well.  
"Eh, I'm sorry that this isn't the New Year's Eve you normally have." Rose decided to say. This wasn't hooking up with all the girls, like he was used to.  
"No, don't…I never had the courage to just…do whatever I wanted at New Year's Eve, but now I finally did something else," Scorpius said.  
"But it wasn't what you wanted, of course," Rose laughed, but she didn't mean it.  
"Yeah, first it was…strange, but it was fun, wasn't it?" he laughed back, but it didn't sound real either. Why were they just a few hours ago talking like friends, and was it awkward now?  
"Yeah…it was fun. Strange too, of course. Never spend this much time with you alone, of course," she just stammered something and regretted everything she said. It was awkward. They were awkward. But. They. Were. Awkward. A situation had to be awkward for both, to be really called awkward, James always said. So it was awkward for him, too? But why? Or was she overthinking it?  
"Yeah, I think we needed time or something. We just were teenagers when we hated each other, and luckily, we can now look past that," Scorpius said, not looking at her.  
"Of course, yeah. Eh, I'm sorry that I'm so boring, but I'm tired from work and…—O, _shit_, you need to _sleep_ here too, of course!" Rose sighted, but laughed at the same time. She was tired, confused, and this had to happen to her, of course, but she didn't want this to be awkward.  
"I'll…eh…I'll manage," he said.  
"No you won't, because the sheets are lying in my bedroom, so I'll help you," Rose laughed, but she still felt disappointed, and stood there to take the sheets, when she just wanted to say that he could lie with her. Crazy.

:: :: ::

An hour later she was really lying in her bed, feeling a bit awkward that Scorpius was lying a few inches from her. She almost fell asleep, when someone knocked softly on her door.  
"Can I come in?" he asked.  
"Mm yes..." she mumbled. She gasped when the light turned on and she saw him standing there in only boxers. He was really fit. Not the over-the-top-really-big-six-pack fit, but the a-bit-of-a-six-pack-which-is-very-very-hot fit. She was just wearing her nightie, _without a bra_.  
"Any resolutions for this year?" he asked grinningly.  
"Being nicer to you, obviously," she murmured, as he sat down onto her bed.  
"I like that one," he said, smirking. She rolled her eyes, but became bright red, because she didn't meant he would hear that.  
"I just wanted to ask if you had another blanket for me, it's really cold there," he said half-flirty. Despite of the fact Rose _knew_, he could just conjure a warming-spell, and he could just put his shirt on, she didn't say anything about that. Despite of the fact, Rose actually had another blanket, she gave him a smirk.  
"I haven't got any left," she said challenging.  
"I'm going to steal your bed then." He kicked her out of her bed and placed himself under the sheets.  
"You warmed it up, already," he grinned. Her bed was meant for two, thus she climbed into her bed again. He was in the middle of her bed, so she had to lie against him. He turned his body towards her, and smiled at her. He played with her hair, and Rose knew that this was how she supposed to feel with Nick. When he kissed her, she finally felt all the things Lily had asked her, when she told her, she had a relationship with Nick.

The next morning Rose woke up, feeling Scorpius holding her.  
"NO WORRIES ROSE, I'M HERE ALREADY!" she heard Al scream. Scorpius woke up, clearly confused.  
"What's happening?" he asked in a sleepy voice.  
"Well, I think we need to get decent and quick, because Al is here," she said, almost panicking. He was immediately awake, grinned and kissed her forehead.  
"I will only leave if you agree to one thing," he said with a seducing smile.  
"Which is?" Rose asked, knowing that this couldn't mean anything good.  
"Will you go out with me?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only thing I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Beta**: Codename Jellybean (ff)

**Updated**: June 16 (2015)

* * *

"So? What happened?" Albus asked. He knew that Rose was reading her case, over and over again, just to show him she'd a legit reason to ignore him.

"What do you mean?" Rose asked, turning the page of her case. She didn't really pay attention to him, while he just rolled his eyes.

"Really Rose? Are you going to try that one on me? You do know I know Scorpius my entire life and thereby know a little bit too well what is sex-smirk is? You look thereby if you have had a rough night and for a fact I know for sure it isn't because of your case," Albus said. He grinned from ear to ear and could see her blush spreading to cover her entire face and quite a bit of her neck. If it hadn't been obvious before, it now was sure of hell.

"And how's _your_ love-life? Have you told your parents yet?" Rose asked. She gave him a dark smile, when she changed the subject. Albus's smile immediately faded away. She defeated him, again.

"No, I haven't, actually," he answered, blushing too. Rose groaned and this time it was her time to roll her eyes.

"Albus!" She shouted. Frustrated, she threw her arms in the air.

"Have you told your parents yet?" Albus asked. It was his attempt to change the subject and the second he'd said that, he knew he failed desperately.

"Told my parents what exactly?" She asked, giving the 'what' some extra attention.

"Told them that you and Scorpius are dating, of course!" Albus laughed again. Rose looked up and sighted lightly. Working on her case wouldn't be possible for at least some hours, Albus was beginning with distracting her from her case.

"There wouldn't be much to tell as we aren't dating. I'm just curious why you would think that," Rose answered. She cleared her case up, took a sip of her glass of water and hoped for the best. Perhaps if she gave him some flat answers, he would just drop it.

"I wasn't eavesdropping on purpose, but I was looking for you and heard the last bit of your conversation, before smelling the sex inside your bedroom. Also: you could've just given him the kiss he obviously wanted," Albus continued. He was always like that. Like it was completely logical to discuss her sex-life with him, her very male cousin. Of course they talked about everything, but these were the things Rose preferably talked about with Helga. Not so much with Albus, because she found it rather awkward. Perhaps it was because of Scorpius that made him even more open about everything.

"I've not...I'm not...I didn't..." Rose rambled, not knowing what to say. She sighted and thought about what she would tell Helga if it was her sitting there instead of Albus.

"Really Al?" she asked eventually. Her face went down and she felt hurt. Why did Al have to do that.

"We don't date, okay? I said no. Which you should've known if you say you eavesdropped — accidentally — on us," Rose answered when she finally had an answered that satisfied her. But did it really satisfy her? The minute she'd said that, she realized she was disappointed of her own statement. Albus was even more shocked than she was. He spitted his drink all over her desk. Rose groaned "Albus!" but he didn't even bother to listen.

"You said no?" he asked. His mouth fell open and he almost drooled. Of course he knew that one of the only thing Scorpius and Rose had in common — according to themselves — was that they were both his best friend and thereby always fought, but Albus had seen so many similarities. It was probably why he was able to be best friends with both of them. They fit that well together, that Albus couldn't even think about protesting that his best friends had done the deed together. Hadn't he shipped them since forever?

"Why?" Albus asked, because he genuinely didn't know a reason Rose would say no.

"Why? Come on, Al, there are so many reasons! He does only one-time-thingies and I just broke up with Nick and that plus plenty of other reasons why not," Rose exclaimed.

"You just broke up with Nick and that's a bad thing? That's a good thing, Rose. You're free again and why don't you fill that spot with Scorpius?" Albus asked again.

"Because it's not appropriate facing Nick. We did date for a lot of years, Al!" she just said.

"Not appropriate? That's nonsense and you know it! You two were never as together as you liked everyone to think you were. Nick was just there for your name and you were there for whatever reason you made up this time. Just like you make all those reasons up just so you won't be together with Scorpius. Well, I do know him a lot better than you and I know he will be different with you. Not only because you have cousins like James and me, but for a lot of other reasons too," Albus defended his friend. Why was Rose saying these kind of...excuses to him? There was more behind it all. There was another reason why she didn't want to date Scorpius, but Albus didn't know what. He breathed in and out and let it sink in.

"How did he react?" Albus asked eventually. He looked out of her window. Scorpius's reaction would say everything about his feelings and he looked Rose deep in the eye.

"He was surprised...I guess? He probably isn't accustomed to have to accept no for an answer, but I know him, Al. I know it's fake and he's fake. He even wanted to convince me by kissing me and let me say this: I'm not that easy." Rose turned around and grabbed a book.

"You're screwing everything up, Rosie," Albus said dramatically. His ship was sinking. Not that he was totally giving up on it, but this really wasn't good news.

"Yeah, well, you've no right to speak, Alby. There will be a day that Eric won't come back," she said, turning to her case again. This time, Albus didn't react.

:: :: ::

Albus was fully aware of what Rose had said to him, but she probably didn't know her timing couldn't be more perfectly. Albus turned on the lights in his apartment and sighted. He was alone.

"Eric?" he asked, just to be sure. There was no answer. Albus sat down on his couch and tried to catch his breath. The tears ran down his cheeks. He felt like Eric had stabbed a knife into his heart and there would be no chance of recovery.

_"It's almost New Year's Eve, Alb, how are we going to celebrate it?" Eric asked him and Albus almost choked. He hadn't really given it much thought, but he knew what Eric was implicating._

_"Eh, Scorpius invited us?" Albus said, forcing a smile._

_"Again? Well, you know how much I like his parties, but I thought you'd said last year we were going to celebrate it with your family this year?" Eric gave him a hopeful look and when Albus looked down, he realized what was going on._

_"You still haven't told them, have you?" he asked, but he knew the answer before he'd even asked the question._

_"I'm so sorry, Eric, but you know my parents and..." Albus tried to say._

_"Yeah, but Al, that's the problem. I don't know them. I don't know them other then from the papers, your stories and the time you introduced me as 'a friend of yours'. It hurts, Albus. You've been there like, ten years or so? I've been convincing you to tell your parents — and how to do so — for the same amount of years now. I thought that getting a place together would make things easier for you, for us, but it's just hurting me more and more," Eric told him. Albus tried to fight the tears in his eyes, but lost the battle when a little tear escaped._

_"Eric, please...please don't. I will tell them, you know that!" Albus tried._

_"Yeah, well, you have been saying that since the beginning of all of this. And I've given you your space. I've given you everything I could, but I can't do it anymore. I'm done, Albus. I'm not going to be in a relationship with someone who isn't out of the closet. Hell — I can't even hold your hand in public!" Eric said frustrated, looking away from Albus. He couldn't even look him in the eyes right now. The two guys weren't exactly the most emotional guys ever known. The fact that they both were so close to crying, said something. Albus was by far the handsome one — although Eric wasn't exactly ugly either, but this fight was something that made both of them look ugly._

_"I know that, I'm working on it," Albus mumbled, but the second he'd said that, he realized he wasn't. He was so scared of what his parents would say that he convinced Eric and almost convinced himself to do it, but every time he had been close to telling it, he stepped back. So it was really true then. If he was a Gryffindor he would've been brave and would've told his parents. But it wasn't. He was a Slytherin._

_"That's not enough anymore, Albus. I can't do this anymore. I'm done — we're done." Eric walked away, taking his stuff with him. The door slammed shut, leaving behind a hollow silence that broke when Albus started crying._

They had met at Hogwarts. Eric had been one of the smartest of their year, but didn't stand out as much as Rose and Scorpius — as he was way less talkative and famous. They officially met somewhere near their second year, but according to what Eric had told him, he liked him the minute he saw him with the Sorting Hat. Eric completely came out of his comfort zone, when he asked Albus if he could help him. He had looked like someone who really needed help — that was how Eric had described him then. Albus described himself more as a really desperate person, not knowing what to do with all those people expecting everything of him. He wasn't as smart as Rose, he wasn't as good in Quidditch as James and even Lily, but he had been handsome.

They were in their fourth year, when Eric came out. Albus had found it really awkward in the beginning to accept that — he wasn't really sure about what he exactly was. Some weeks later began the chick-phase. Albus hung more and more around Scorpius, instead of Eric — they already were best friends, but because of Eric, they hadn't seen each other very often. He wasn't that bad as James, Fred, Louis and Scorpius even, but he had dated in two months, an amount of fifteen girls. The girls came and the girls went and Albus desperately tried to feel something, but he didn't. A week after his last girl — which was odd, considering — Albus had locked himself up into a broom closet. Eric found him. Eric comforted him. Eric knew what was 'wrong' with him.

Their relationship didn't start until they had both attended some lame Hogwarts-reunion party from a girl they both barely knew. In some drunk truth-or-dare game, they kissed and somehow ended up together at Eric's couch. The next day had been awkward, as Albus had to admit he hadn't told his parents yet. Eric had said he didn't mind — he had to tell them when he was ready — but now five years had passed and everybody in their area had a steady relationship, Eric wanted to make them official too. They lived together, but for the outside world, it looked like they were best friends and Eric didn't live there — Scorpius came very often at his apartment too, which made it look less weird.

They were done. Eric and he were done. For real now. His empty apartment told him everything. The smell of food wasn't there. The heat and the mess that their fight had contained, was still there. It didn't feel right. Albus didn't bother to clean up the cups he had thrown at the ground. Today had been good, seeing Rose and laughing with — and at — her, but he knew he wasn't ready to completely give her all the attention she needed. He needed to work on his own problems now. And in the condition Rose was in now, she could use a little more help than that..

:: :: ::

Scorpius was sitting in his office, when his boss, Auror Potter Senior, came into his office. He was just finishing his work as it had been a long time since he should've been at his house. Perhaps that was one of the benefits of being single.

"I guess Albus already told you, but I will inform you about your change of jobs," he said, looking a bit stressed. The old man could use a holiday, Scorpius thought, but he just sighted instead. Albus hadn't told him anything, so a letter would be coming soon.

"You will be exchanging jobs with Albus. He will continue researching the case of the Knights of Walpurgis, while you will be looking out for Rose," his boss used his business voice while saying this. Scorpius groaned in his mind. His colleagues and he were finally at good terms about everything and he finally didn't feel judged anymore because of his name. This would change everything. The damn girl kept judging him when he didn't even do actually something to be mad about. That would mean loads of fights and almost no sleep. It wasn't the only reason he didn't want to do that job, though. After he had left last night, he couldn't stop thinking about her. When he had asked her out — in his mind a completely normal question, — she had said: "No, and you know why," while he clearly had no idea why. Well, he had an idea, but he thought she would know it would be different with her. Although...perhaps not. Normally he wouldn't think twice about it — there were more birds who dared to say no, — but this time was different. He knew that if he ever screwed up, it wouldn't be as easy to continue to the next one, with Albus being their best friend.

"So, Scorpius, please take the job." Auror Potter smiled and held the paperwork in the air. Scorpius knew that his boss could've just asked some of his other colleagues — like Frank, who was much closer to Rose than he ever was — but he didn't dare to suggest now. His late-night-being-at-the-office behavior was probably the reason behind this job.

"Yeah, of course," Scorpius answered, while he took the contract his boss handed him. He didn't read it. He just signed it and handed it back. His day couldn't be any worse, so a job he didn't want was something he could handle too, wasn't it?

"Oh, and Scorpius, can you please talk to Albus anytime soon? It looks like he doesn't want to talk to us and there is clearly something off..." His boss became more like the man Scorpius knew, the father of his best friend. He looked worried and it was clear that he didn't know what was happening inside of his son's head. It was true that Albus's mother knew that Al was gay, but it looked like his father wasn't that sure.

"Of course, but I think he doesn't want to talk to anyone, anytime soon," Scorpius reacted. His boss smiled back and walked out if his office. It was almost midnight and Scorpius couldn't stop thinking about the other night. Rose...Rose...He needed to protect her of course! Scorpius's ability to relativize wasn't that good at this hour and he realized he had to read the conditions in his contract.

"_Accio copy of contract_!" he said, holding the copy only a second later in his hand. Scorpius scanned the contract quickly.

_New protecting rules apply from the first of January..._

_...according to the increasing danger to this case we will set some extra protective rules..._

_...day and night..._

_...shifts will only be changed if the Auror isn't capable of doing his job..._

_...at least a month of protection will be required before a new Auror will take over..._

Wait...what? At least a month?! A month of 24/7 protection of Rose Weasley?

"Auror Potter?" he asked, when he stepped into the office of his boss.

"Yes, Scorpius?" his boss said, while he yawned. It really was late.

"Is it really necessary to be twenty-four seven present?" Scorpius said, hoping that his boss would say no.

"Well, you're able to sleep and go to family-meetings. Also you will continue your work on the case you already were working on — because we don't like you to be sitting there in front of her apartment and doing nothing — but there will be rules. Rules like, you have live in the same house as Rose, so Rose only has to move when something happens to her. You will communicate with your colleagues by different owls and for important situations is a Patronus allowed. If you have to leave for short occasions — like a family gathering or illness — one of your colleagues will be taking over for that day, but you have to talk to me first about something like that" His boss smiled at him, like he knew that this wouldn't be easy for him. It was no surprise he said that, as it was all over in his contract. Did he wanted to do this...contact your supervisor. Did he wanted to do that...contact your supervisor.

"This would be so much fun for Al," Scorpius sighted and he saw almost a smile appear n the tired face of his boss.

"Rose isn't that bad, Scorpius. Perhaps way too smart for her own good, but also really kind and giving when you know her better. I think the two of you could get along, if you were able to look past some things," he answered. Scorpius laughed in himself, when he realized that his boss was right. That night, they had been getting along. They had been looking past things, but then the morning came and it was like Rose realized that what she'd done was completely mental. Well, perhaps it was, but not in a bad way, right?

"Looks like Albus's letter is coming," Scorpius said, when he saw a familiar owl coming into the office. His boss smiled and hit his shoulder in a friendly way.

"Good luck, Scorpius," he said, while walking away. Scorpius opened the letter and red it quickly.

_Scorpius,_

_I'm sorry, but I'm thinking about all these things with Eric. I messed up, I really did. Perhaps I still have a chance, but I need time. Not sure what happened exactly between you and Rose — tell me everything, soon. Will you please look after my dearest cousin (and not sleeping with her and then ignoring her, like you do with your birds, admit it). I'll come back ASAP._

_Albus_

:: :: ::

Rose was almost sleeping, when she heard some noises coming from her kitchen. She was immediately awake and took her wand. Breathing in and out, she closed the door of her bedroom quietly and walked from her bedroom to her living room. There she saw a figure standing in the pitch-dark.

"Shit," was all Rose could hear. It was obviously a man, but she couldn't see anything else. If she turned just a bit further, she was able to hit him with a spell.

"_Stupify_," she whispered. The man was too late to use a protection spell and just fell down. Rose sighted surprised and stood still. That was...weird?

"_Lumos_," Rose said, walking towards the man. His blond hair was the first thing catching Rose's eye.

"Shit." This time it came from Rose's mouth. She was tempted to let him lie there, but knew that there would be something up. Otherwise, he wouldn't be in her house, would he?

"_Rennervate_," she casted upon him and he woke up.

"Well, that's what you call a perfect reaction when someone walks into your house at night. It hurt a bit, but you did well, Rosie." Scorpius stood up and walked towards her kitchen. He opened all her countertops like it was his's and messed around.

"May I?" he finally asked. Rose didn't react, so he just grabbed a mug.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, slowly.

"Our dear friend has chosen to think about his love-life, so he wouldn't be distracted while looking out for you. I'm taking over, for a month or so. Also: New Year, New Rules, so I will keep your company from Monday till Monday. Without even a break," he grinned and winked at her.

"You're kidding?" Rose asked. Couldn't this be one of his terrible jokes? If he said yes, she would promise him to laugh at it, if it just meant that this wasn't true.

"No, I'm not." His face wore quite a smirk and the only thing Rose wanted to do, was punching him.

"Well, suit yourself. I'm going to sleep," she murmured.

"And this time: stay in the damn living room!" she added.

"It wasn't like you complained?" he shouted back. Why was it possible for him to look cute whilst trying to use her coffeemaker and failing?

"Yeah, well, there was some alcohol involved and I would never do such a thing without alcohol," Rose was shouting too, now. _Stupid, stupid, stupid fool_, she thought. The owl at the framework of her window, let her groan.

"Stupid Al," she murmured under her breath. She opened the letter with anger and rolled her eyes.

_Rosie,_

_Eric and I will fix things, but I have to work for it. You'll have to work for your relationship with Scorpius, too. Don't be too hard and be your loving self. I know you can do this. I will be doing my job soon, but Eric first._

_With love, Al_

"Idiot. Asshole. Bloody, bloody, stupid fool!" Rose muttered, while Scorpius walked into her room.

"Who's the bad guy this time? Still me or is it someone else this time?" He said, grinning at her.

"Leave me alone, Malfoy! Just go to sleep or whatever," she answered. She was, again, in her pajamas, while he was taking her bedding from her closet.

"Ouch, Weasley. I thought we had a great night, the other night," he tried to cheer her up. The bedding were flying out of her bedroom now and Rose rolled her eyes. He could never do something the muggle way, could he.

"In your dreams," she answered weary. She stepped into her bed and then realized what she'd said.

"Oh, those dreams are _really_ special," he said smirking. Rose picked one of her pillows and smashed it towards his head. It missed, of course, by far.

"You forget I'm a really well trained Auror, roomie," he grinned and walked out of her room. Rose was almost sleeping, again, when he was walking into her room, again.

"We have to make house-rules some time," he said.

"Really looking forward to it, but let me sleep now," she answered sarcastically. She didn't want to look up, but as she didn't know if he left already, she did. He was indeed still standing there, with the moonlight shining on his well-trained stomach.

"Piss of Malfoy, and close the door," she groaned, while speaking towards her pillows.

"I'm gone already!" he laughed and with a soft noise, he really was gone. Leaving Rose behind, hating herself already. What was he doing to her?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.  
**Beta**: Codename Jellybean (ff)  
**Updated**: August 20 (2015)

* * *

"Okay, rule number one: My living room isn't a bedroom, make-out-room or whatever you want to make of it. Nick's old office is empty, so just do whatever you want with it. Rule number two: I couldn't care less about your personal life, just use a _Muffliato _charm whenever you'll be louder than a normal person who's asleep. Rule number three: My uncle sent me the contract you signed with some guiding rules. I just want to point out that you will never ever join me with family-events. It's bad enough to see you every day, let alone you joining me there. Besides, my dad won't like it too. Four: New Year's Eve never happened. Five: We won't communicate in any way except if it's absolutely necessary. Six…" Rose went on and on about rules. _Her _rules in _her_ house. _He _was only a _guest_. She made it quite clear that the only reason that she hadn't killed him already, was because he needed to prevent her from being killed.

"Okay, okay, I get it. Are you done now?" he asked. His fingers ticked on her desk and she shot him a look full of hate. Why did he walk into her office? Why did he want to know what she had to say this time? Why did he think she was kind?  
"Shut it and get lost, Malfoy," Rose answered, waving to the door. She hated him. More than anything in the world. She hated what they'd done and she hated the fact that if she thought about it, her face would turn bright red. He was such a different person that night, but so was she. There wasn't a night that could compare to that one. Not only the part that happened in the bed, but also before that. The conversations they had, it was fun and carefree. In the morning, however, Rose had realized the mistake she'd made. They weren't totally sober and in the end he would only leave her. Someone like Scorpius Malfoy couldn't handle Rose Weasley and her confusing and complicated character. Everyone like him had already left her, even Nick, so Scorpius wouldn't be different. Rose sighted, slowly. In and out. Back to work then, she thought, but Scorpius never left her thoughts.

:: :: ::

Mary Dolohov was a woman of thirty-three, born in 1997. Nine years older then her, Rose thought. She attended Durmstrang from 2007 to 2014 with N.E.W.T.'s for DADA and – to Rose's surprise – Muggle studies. This woman really knew what she was talking about. After Dumstrang, she trained to become an Auror, but stopped in her last year to create the Knights of the Walpurgis. She did this, with her fellow-Auror-in-progress members Donald Rowle and Terra Macnair. They had the same story – bastard-children of Death Eaters – and this united them. Their fathers are hold by the English Ministry of Magic and that led the way. The names of the knights sounded familiar and Rose knew it was time to talk to her father. He never really talked a lot about the war and what happened, but this time she needed the information for her job. This wasn't information she wanted others to tell her, like so many things did happen like that. People who stared at her, said to her that she needed to thank her parents and uncle and tell them they said hi. The most humiliated part was during her History of Magic class, her teacher told the class everything that happened and everyone stared at them. At Rose and Albus. Sometimes even at Helga, Frank and Scorpius. When Rose got home for Christmas after that, she told her parents that she wanted to know what happened. She wanted to know their story, the way only they had experienced the war. And now this. Rose knew that she could just go to reliable sources to ask them some questions about the war, but Rose wanted to know what her father could tell her, because then she would really now what she was dealing with. He could tell her more facts than she needed for her case. It didn't look good and Rose wanted to win this case really badly. But she also wanted to know how dangerous her case really was.  
"MALFOY!" Rose called and she left her office to go look for him. Standing in front of Nick office — it still felt weird — she saw him working on his whatever-he-was-working-on thing.

"You are breaking rule number five…" he sing-songed. He grinned when he saw her face and threw her a kiss.

"Gross," Rose murmured, while glaring at her shoes.  
"Besides, I'm not, because it really is necessary. I need to go to the Ministry to see my father," Rose added in her official voice. Scorpius stopped playing around and a serious look on his face replaced the childish one.  
"That's not going to happen," he said. He stepped from his desk and put his book away in the bookcase. Rose saw that he already had thrown all Nick's book away to use the space for his own books. He really did make it himself comfortable. His serious face turned to hers and Rose doubted that her face looked as sexy as his while being serious. _Sexy? WHAT?_  
"When did you do this?" Rose asked him, ignoring the answer he gave her – it hadn't even been a question, she only informed him about it, because of his stupid job. If he wouldn't have this stupid job, she could've just have some crazy dreams about him and then forget him completely, but now all she could see was the fact he was sexy — which he really wasn't.

"My house elf brought my stuff here," he answered, playing nervously with a feather on his desk.

"My mother would kill you, but I'm not in the mood. Okay, so if you don't want to go to the Ministry, I will. Bye Malfoy," Rose decided, turning around already. Ready to walk out of this room, towards the backdoor. The sooner she got out of there, the better.  
"I said: It's not going to happen!" Scorpius repeated. Rose rolled her eyes and started to look for her car keys.

"That's not an option. I need to speak to my father, because in case you didn't notice: some people have real jobs here," she said angrily. Partly she was angry at him for not letting her go wherever the hell she wanted and partly she was angry at herself for thinking he was sexy.

"It's not going to happen, Weasley, because everyone I'm supposed to protect you from is at the Ministry. I can't protect you there, because there are to many people. If you really want to talk to your father, I can send him a patronus and he can come here." He remained calm and professional, but Rose saw that he was at the point of going mad. His muscles were tensed and his whole face was turning this pinkish colour.

"Oh please, some real action in your life would suit you. Last chance: step into my car or leave me alone."

:: :: ::

She had that kind of car that every muggle apparently wanted. _Morris Mini-Minor_ was how she called it. She had one in bright red, which was very ironic.  
"My father bought it for me. He thought it would be funny to have a red one," she answered his thoughts.

"Everyone asks it – or wants to," she explained then and that was the moment there was a complete silence between the two of them. She was asking herself _why_ she said that or better: why did she even say something _nice_ to him! He was asking himself _how _she knew what he was thinking, although her explanation had been understandable. The car was a bit too small for his taste, but he hadn't blown up, nor had she. He'd stepped into the car and they'd made an agreement. They would go to her parents's house and wait there for her father to come home. He sliced down the chair before some bump in the road would hurt his head. He heard Rose grin, but she didn't mind him further. This time was for Scorpius the first time he could really look at Rose. He saw her freckles and the way they were almost moving. Her freckles were like stars; tiny and in their own way beautiful. Her red hair was short and in a hairstyle, his last girlfriend would call a bob. Scorpius hadn't seen her in a while and realized her hair was way more red than it had been before. Thorough their Hogwarts-years, it had already become redder and even darker. A picture of Rose with hair red as carrots flashed through his mind. How did he even remember that? While Rose was driving the car, the only thing Scorpius could think of was how _sexy_ it was. _NO!_ The warning bells in his head went off and Scorpius groaned internally. This wasn't falling in love with Rose Weasley. This was finding a new victim to seduce and he knew that he would ruin everything with his best friend if he would go for it. Rose wasn't disposable. Rose had to be a keeper.

:: :: ::

_Rose remembered her glass breaking, her sight fading away, her heart stopping. She stood still and didn't say anything. It was in line with expectations, but expecting something and experiencing something was something completely different. They had been arguing for ages, because of his protectiveness, but Rose loved it about him. She never expected them to marry, but she also thought he wouldn't cheat on her. He, who was afraid that she might cheat, cheated on her._

"Rose?" Her father looked worried when Rose didn't react.

"Huh?" she asked, while looking towards her left and right. She was lying on the bench in her parents's house. Slowly she remembered how she'd come here and her father wasn't home. Her mother had said that she looked tired, but Rose had disagreed. She must've fallen asleep, but why did Nick enter her mind? This dream — or nightmare actually — left her mind a few nights ago, but she couldn't think of a reason why it had come back and why now?  
"Sorry, didn't got a nice nap last night," she explained. Rose sat up and rubbed in her eyes.

"I just came home. Your mother is in the kitchen cooking dinner. Guess who she's talking to?" her father growled. Rose snorted and hid a smile.

"My bodyguard, Malfoy," she answered. Her father rolled his eyes and looked at her.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Rose asked and her father shook his head.

"Are you alright, Rosie?" he asked. Rose held back her tears and just went with sarcasm.

"Yeah, some death threats to my head, hiding the fact that I'm even existing and working on my case. Perfectly fine," Rose answered. Her father shook his head again, but Rose hated that. She knew her father wanted her to be honest and if she felt like crying, he would hug her and tell her everything was okay, but that was just it. Everything wasn't okay and on top of that even her _love life_ wasn't okay. She was twenty-four and couldn't even rely on herself.  
"Plus _Malfoy_ of all people to protect you, I can understand that this isn't easy," her father smiled. He joked about it, but Rose knew how he really felt. Rose imagined how her uncle had told her father who would be protecting Rose and how her father had reacted.  
"Yeah, well, that was uncle Harry's idea, not mine," she answered. Still, it was nice to have her father on her side. Rose knew what her mother would say. Something in the lines of how 'perfectly fine' Scorpius would be for the job and that it 'really isn't Al's fault' while it felt like it was his fault.  
"So, your mother told me you wanted to talk to me about something?" her father said, clearing his throat. Rose blinked with her eyes and used _accio _to her bag and got her stuff.

"So," she said. "Dolohov."

:: :: ::

After dinner, Rose decided to clean up with her mother. Scorpius had offered his help too, but her mother said he had been of enough help. Of course her mother could sense the fact she wanted some alone time with her mother.  
"Rose, in your sleep your murmured Nick's name a few times. What's wrong?" she asked. Okay, now she was screwed, Rose thought. Ever when she was very busy and stressed about everything, it led to murmuring while she was asleep. Of course she was very busy and stressed about everything right now, but she hadn't murmured since her finals at Hogwarts.

"I don't know. I had nightmares about what happened. Not really scary or something, but all I feel is emptiness and it scares me. But the thing is, the nightmares stopped a while ago and I had the same nightmare when I fell asleep on the couch. The nightmares were never this intense. I never felt so lonely and lost before. And I thought I was over him, you know! I thought that I didn't mind at all that we broke up and that I never really loved him, but there happened something…and now I'm…not so sure anymore." Rose breathed slowly in and out while she said that. She didn't know where Scorpius was, but she didn't really mind. He was probably working on his own case anyways. As long as he wasn't listening, she didn't care.  
"So, what was it? What happened?" her mother asked. She took Rose's handed smiled at her.  
"Merlin, I wish Lily would be here. I think she would have seen…I think she…I would've talked to Lily about this, but…Well I can't. She's gone…and now…," Rose begun. Lily was a tense subject, but she really wished her friend and cousin would be here.

"And now you're stuck with me?" her mother finished. Rose laughed and blushed.

"Well…yeah. I haven't talked with you about boys and everything since my fourth year of Hogwarts?" she answered. Her mother laughed too and hugged her.

"You know, when your father and I were breaking up and getting back together so often in such a short time, I wasn't able to talk to your aunt Ginny about it. She was my best girl friend, but I couldn't possibly discus the problems I had with _her brother_! So I went to my mother about it and I realized that mothers have a different opinion about your love life than your friends. I don't think I'll have the same opinion as Lily has, but I have a different opinion. Sometimes it is better to have more opinions," her mother said and Rose hugged her again. She didn't talk often to her mother about the real stuff – mostly because she couldn't stand that her mother was smarter than her, but it didn't mean she didn't love her mother. Her mother knew that of course. Perhaps it was indeed better to hear her mother's opinion.

"Do you remember New Year's Eve?" Rose asked and her mother nodded.

"Well, Malfoy was at my house and we…kind of got drunk and ended up in bed together," she blushed, while her mother laughed silently at her awkwardness. It was the part where she had to start.

"You mean: the two of you had sex?" her mother asked casually and Rose's head became bright red. It was typically that her mother would just give the word for it, instead of describe it.

"Yes! And it was…I don't know! I'm not going to talk about _that_ with you, mum! But anyways, I woke up the next morning and he asked me out. I said no, because it didn't feel right and since then I have this weird thoughts in my head and it makes me think about Nick. Today was the first time I had a flashback again, though," Rose said. Her shoulders lowered and she was relieved after saying that. It was out there. Out in the open. Not only in her head anymore.

"You know, when you and Nick were together, we all had our doubts. Your father wanted you two to break up, because he didn't see a future. I stopped him, because I saw more. There was never a future between the two of you, but there was love and respect for each other. You weren't made for each other, but you were – in your own way – happy. The thing about your relationship with Nick is that you already knew that it wasn't right or fitting, but you didn't want to see it. It wouldn't be good to break the two of you up, because you wouldn't understand why and in a next relationship you could make the same mistake. Everyone has relationships which doesn't work out in the end, but the point is that you learned from them and we couldn't take that away from you. When it was final, I think you were mostly disappointed, but not broken hearted, because you thought it was obvious that something like this would happen. Now is the moment that a potential other relationship is arriving, and you don't want to get hurt again. You and Nick might not have had the most epic relationship in the world, but that doesn't mean something like this wouldn't hurt. You need to give yourself some time, instead of sleeping with the first one who's offering," her mother smiled at her and Rose fell into her arms.

"Why are you so smart, mum!" she exclaimed and her mother laughed.

"You're not the first one who has great difficulties with relationships and excepting and embracing yourself," she laughed and gave her daughter a kiss on her hair.

"No?" Rose asked, but actually she already knew the answer.

"Your father and I are far from perfect, but we love each other and we will always try to work it out. I'm not saying that you have to have a relationship like we have, but for your next relationship, don't go looking for perfection," her mother answered with a smile.

:: :: ::

During their ride back to Rose's house, they didn't say anything to each other. He was obviously still angry at the things she'd said in the morning and she was only thinking about what her mother had said about her relationship with Nick. She had been right, Rose knew. Perhaps she'd never loved Nick, but she really cared for him and had been in love with him. It wasn't wrong to dwell on that. To give herself the time she needed to recover from that. It wasn't nothing, their break-up. They had been together for five years. Five years! The time they had secretly liked each other would make that five years even longer. Rose knew that she could say anything about Nick – he had been overprotective _and_ he cheated – but she knew he had been there for her in the past. Even when they were already bickering, he had been there. He had been the person who stood by her side, while she told the world that she would defend the Knights of Walpuris. It made her realize, that even though she hated him, there was a reason Nick cheated on her. It wasn't a one-way-problem, because she wasn't perfect too. It bothered her; because she was dying to know what it was, exactly, what Nick didn't like about her. That thing she did that made him cheat on her. When Rose parked her car in her garage, she didn't give Scorpius a second look. Walking into her house, she immediately run towards her bedroom. Not being able to hold it any longer, she quickly locked her door and sat down on her bed. The crying started and she couldn't help it. It wasn't wrong, she told herself. It was good to be broken for a day. To show her feelings, for one day. This was human nature.

:: :: ::

"Have you spoken to Rose, lately?" Frank asked Helga, while walking into the kitchen. He took some chicken from their fridge and decided to give his cooking skills a go.

"Seriously Frank? You're going to cook? You should know that you didn't inherit your mother's cooking skills as your sister did," Helga said, while shaking her head. As a precaution, she held her wand ready.

"Trusting me wouldn't hurt you, you know?" he said laughingly, while heating the chicken with his wand.

"Yeah, but burning your house would!" she answered. She stopped him, perfectly on time, and with that she avoided his house being on flames.

"Sometimes I ask myself what you eat when I'm not here," she said, but then she remembered what he'd asked her in the first place.

"Actually…I haven't spoken to Rose…" she said, surprised by her own statement. Although Rose was in trouble with everything and everybody and thereby locked in her own house, Helga had managed to come at least every Thursday to her house. It was strange, because it was Saturday already and last Thursday had been the third week they hadn't spoken to each other. Helga knew that it was her fault, because Rose wasn't able to visit or even write her, but she'd been busy too.

"I haven't spoken to her either. What about we visit her Monday?" Frank asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Monday? In the evening, if that's alright with you?" Helga answered and he nodded.

"By the way: when you're not here I'm starving to death or I'm ordering something," he grinned.

"That's so unhealthy! You really should eat less unhealthy stuff and more of the healthy stuff like vegetables!" she groaned. Looking at him, she just shook her head disapprovingly.

"You are an Auror, Frank! You have a reputation to hold! Getting fat is the worst you can do to yourself right now!" she said. Being a Healer, she knew everything of the best way in order to keep a good condition.

"I know the perfect way to lose weight," Frank said smirking. Helga rolled her eyes.

"Not now, Frank, look at the chicken!" she tried to distract him, but it didn't work. If Frank had an idea, he always _had_ to go for it. He threw her over his shoulder and walked her to the bedroom.

"Fra-nk!" she protested, although she didn't really mean it. He stopped her by kissing her softly.

"Is that all you got?" she asked. He looked at her and she tried to look as sexy as possible. He groaned softly and crushed his lips onto hers.

:: :: ::

"Helga?" he asked, when they were quietly lying in his bed. She was lying in his arms and played with her dark hair.

"Mmm?" she mumbled back, still in the bubble of thoughts of what just happened. She was happy and in that moment, genuinely happy. He gave her a soft kiss on the top of her head. She heard a soft murmur, which she couldn't understand. Looking up, she saw he was blushing. She sat up immediately and her hand went to his cheek.

"What's up?" she asked softly and he smiled at her.

"I want you to move in," he answered. He looked into her eyes, hoping to catch her reaction. She smiled and leaned against him.

"It's not a question?" she asked him, grinning a bit. His face relaxed and he grinned too.

"Nah," he said. His hands were on her leg and he made circles with his finger on her leg.

"Why?" she asked. She knew that they had been together since Hogwarts and talked about the future, but they had never talked about…_them_ in the future.

"Because your flat isn't yours, but you share it with, like seven people and that's really annoying," he began. Helga laughed at one particular memory that proved why Frank hated her flat. When she lived there for a few months and she and Frank hadn't seen each other in the same amount of months, they had missed each other very much. Frank came over to see her, but Helga had failed to tell him that there lived some other people in her flat. He had been lucky that Helga had been the one to open the door, but that was all to be happy about. They were almost in her bedroom, while heavily snogging, when her roommates had decided to switch rooms again. Luckily for them – _and _for Kelsey, – Kelsey was able to stop them, before they did something they really didn't want to share with anyone else then the both of them. That and a lot of the same kind of situations happened every time Frank visited Helga and he hated it.

"Also, your flat is miles away from mine, so I don't even see you in a rush and I would rather see your face for a second than not at all," he continued. She thought about that and she knew it was true. Their jobs were so far separated, that they would only see each other if he was hurt or they would have the time to see each other. With overtime work, family and other friends they didn't see very often too, they had barely time for each other. Helga craved to only see him for a second, because this was killing them. Their relationship was so much more than only physical, but with all that, the only thing they wanted to do to show their love was…their physical love.

"I just want to see you lying next to me when I wake up," Frank admitted.

"It is killing me that I don't see you for months and we live in the same city for Merlin's sake!" he said.

"So you want to live in your tiny flat, together?" Helga asked. She really wanted him to say no. It was a terrible neighborhood and it was ideal when he came to live there, because it was cheap. If they were living together, they would be able to buy something more expensive and less dirty.

"No of course not, I already bought a house we can live in," he said. His voice wasn't as secure as before and Helga knew why. She wasn't one who loved it when a man did something big for her without asking, like painting her walls green, because she mentioned before she loved green. With remarks like that, she didn't mean to say that that person needed to paint her walls, but just that she loved green. Frank knew this and he'd never done something big like that – he'd learned it by doing small things wrong, years ago. Helga knew that he would be afraid that this was too much. That buying a house for them would be something she wanted to decide with him.

"What does it look like?" she asked and with a smile, he showed her some pictures. It was a tiny, but cozy house in the middle of magical London.

"There's a fireplace and we're able to apparate in- and outside our house. Visitors who apparate, will automatically go to the front door and we can give a few people our key," he explained.

"Do we have a key? Like…muggle-style?" Helga asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah, it's a new, upcoming trend," he answered. She smiled and hit her arms around him.

"Does that mean you like it?" he asked. Helga nodded and kissed him.  
"Yes, I really like it!"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.  
**Updated**: November 24 (2015)

* * *

"WE'RE HERE FOR ROSE, YOU ASSHOLE, LET US IN!" Rose recognised the voice of her best friend Helga and woke up immediately. She realised she had been sleeping when she saw a bit of drool on her case. Before Scorpius would've the chance to make fun of her, Rose quickly murmured a cleaning spell. She didn't need that kind of attention right now. Ever since they visited her parents, they didn't talk to each other. The only sentences they exchanged were about things they needed or insults and it was terrifyingly unsatisfying and she got quickly tired of it - not that she would ever tell Scorpius. The sky was that dark, that it could easily be the middle of the night or - like Rose's clock declared - Monday evening, nine p.m.. It was one of the things Rose hated the most about the winter. It was dark that soon that her body always told her that she needed to stop working, while in fact, she hadn't been working that long.

"I AM HELGA JORDAN, YOU PAIN IN THE ARSE, NOW LET ME IN!" Helga screamed. Rose knew that Helga was only warming up right now. If she wouldn't show herself right now, Scorpius - Auror or not - would be dead in less than an hour. She smiled by the prospect of that, but she really had missed her friend a lot, so she walked towards front door to see her best friends standing there. It was funny to see how scared Frank looked. He was standing at least a fifty inches away from her and Rose wondered who he was trying to protect; Helga, Malfoy or himself  
"Rose, finally! I almost thought he kidnapped you!" Helga said, but before she could run to her best friend, Scorpius stopped her – again.  
"Malfoy, back off, they are my friends," Rose said, while rolling her eyes. Malfoy and his overprotectiveness - he almost acted like her boyfriend.  
_Whoah, Rose, stop yourself there!_  
"How do you know they didn't use polyjuice potion?" Scorpius said to her, while he turned around.  
"Because I know how my best friend is like, unlike some other people," she answered. She turned to Helga and Frank and immediately smiled.  
"I haven't seen you two in like forever! What are you still doing there? Come in! Come in!" Rose hugged the two and pushed them into her living room. Scorpius stood at the corner of her living room, not knowing what to do. He obviously didn't agree with Rose, but he did realise she could use some privacy.  
"Malfoy, you can leave. I'm with my friends; nothing bad is going to happen! Merlin, Al would be so much easier with these kind of things!" Rose said and waved to Scorpius untill he gave up and left the room. Helga and Frank sat down on her couch and Rose went to the kitchen to bring some drinks. When she walked back to her living room, she looked at her friends and laughed a bit. They were here, at her house, being friends. Of course they were lovers too, but this…this behavior was her favorite when they were around her. Instead of being an awkward couple that couldn't stop kissing, smiling or even looking at each other, Frank and Helga were able to be normal and be friends.  
"So, what is Malfoy doing here?" Frank asked, when he took a sip of his butterbeer. Rose knew that Frank knew the answer to that. Frank was an Auror, like Albus and Scorpius and because of their age, they'd done everything together - even though Frank always tried to convince Helga he thought Malfoy was a douchebag. Frank didn't ask this question because he didn't know the answer. Frank asked the question, because he wanted to know what she would answer - and perhaps because Helga didn't know Malfoy was her bodyguard.  
"He's being my bodyguard, since Al and Eric broke up and Al wasn't able to keep his shit together," Rose answered. She lowered herself on her comfy chair and rolled her eyes.  
"It's really annoying and I miss Al already. Can you imagine? Me missing Al?" She exclaimed and her friends laughed. It was true, Albus and she had been playing and fighting from the moment they were born.  
"He clearly didn't remember me from Hogwarts, otherwise he would've let us in!" Helga grumbled. She brought a tuft of hair back to the place it belonged and gave Rose a pitiful look.  
"Yeah, we talked about that and the minute I said your name, he was like: Who in Merlin's name is that? Besides, I don't think he would let anyone in, even if it would be my father or uncle Harry. He thinks this job is so boring that when the moment to do something pops up, he's overprotective," Rose complained, although she knew it was unreasonable to complain. She was safe now and that was all she needed. It could've been worse. It could've been that bad that her father would be her bodyguard and then she literally couldn't do anything else than knitting all day long, but still.  
"Well, he's trying to protect you and from what I hear, he's doing a good job. Al is very positive about him too," Frank said. He took a sip from his drink and then realised both girls were looking at him.  
"What?" he asked carefully.  
"Frank! You know it's Malfoy we're talking about!" Helga said irritated. She gave Frank an angry look, while he just shrugged.  
"I know him from work. We work together with Al and a few others on a project," Frank explained, but Helga still wasn't pleased. Of course she knew that, but it didn't mean she liked it. It didn't mean that every time one of them would bring it up, she wouldn't fight him about it. Rose knew the way Helga thought about Scorpius wasn't something that needed time. It needed loads of time and loads of effords from Scorpius to make it right.  
"Why didn't you tell me you were all buddy-buddy with Malfoy? He wasn't very nice to you either, so why should you be nice to him?" Helga argued.  
"Well, because we have to take our job very seriously and polyjuice potion is like butterbeer for us: we have to be really carefull and notice all the details, because otherwise, we can be fooled," Frank said. He sighted and hugged Helga lightly.  
"I saw he was surprised to see me, because firstly, he didn't know we were together. Or at least, I never told him. Secondly we aren't buddy-buddy, but colleagues and have experienced some tuff things with our group. That makes our group strong. So don't be like that, especially now!" he added. The last remark made Helga blush and Rose looked from one to another. Frank's little speech was exactly what he always told Helga, but this little extra thing that was happening between them, was different. Something was going on. Something she didn't know.  
"What are you two not telling me?" She asked, laughing a bit at their enthusiasm and how they both blushed. Helga was the one  
"We're going to live together!" Helga exclaimed happily. The smile on her face couldn't be any brighter and Rose was genuinely happy for the two of them.  
"Congratulations! Where are you going to live?" she asked immediately.  
"Because of the paperwork, I'm moving in with Frank first and then we will live in the middle of London!" Helga said. She bumped up and down on Rose's bench and her head was red – as red as possible for Helga, as she was a true Jordan.  
"That's so awesome guys!" Rose said. She stood up to hug the both of them.  
"Being apart didn't work out," Frank said and Rose laughed at him.  
"Yeah, I remember that feeling with Nick. Living together is such a relieve then!" She said. After mentioning his name, she smiled weakly. It was still bothering her. She sighted for a sec, realizing that she had ruined their moods.  
"Rose, speaking of Nick: how are you? I have never been more of a bad friend than after you and Nick broke up. I know we both were busy, but I never…took the time to ask you how you were!" Helga said. Her face was way more serious now and Rose sighted.  
"I don't know. I'm not over him, you know! We…we lived together. We were that far! It's not something I would easily give up. We both made mistakes and now we're over, but that doesn't mean the feeling is completely gone." Saying that, Rose realized that she could get in peace with herself. Although she said before that one moment was enough to cry over Nick, maybe it wasn't.  
"It's okay, Rose. We never really supported your relationship with him, but we accepted it and so we accept your grieve. If you wouldn't cry or feel anything at all, you would be heartless. Luckily you aren't," Helga said. She smiled at her friend.  
"I really want to be your friend right now, but I think Helga is better with this kind of stuff, Rose. Perhaps I need to leave you two alone," Frank said. He rubbed her back, kissed her hair and left the room.  
"You can let your guard down now, Rose, I'm your friend and there are no boys here," Helga said. She stood up to take Rose's hand and to push her onto the couch. There, she was able to hug her and let Rose be herself with her full support.

:: :: ::

"Leaving so soon, Longbottem?" Scorpius asked when Frank walked into the kitchen.  
"Malfoy, it is creepy to overhear the conversations of a girl and her friends," Frank answered.  
"Yeah, well, I need to keep an eye on her. You know what Potter will say if Weasley died right now," Scorpius explained. Frank laughed and got himself a drink.  
"Something between the lines: 'You know we can't trust anyone! This is serious business and you should've checked them on the use of polyjuice potion!'" Frank said. Knowing his boss as his actual boss and a family friend, he knew that this kind of situations were extra hard for him. Personal life mixed up with your work, that was something that never really worked.  
"Something like that," Scorpius laughed, clearly relieved that even though Frank was friends with Rose, he still could be his friend too.  
"Strange, to live with your enemy, hmm?" Frank asked, referring to Hogwarts. Scorpius and Frank never got really along either, but they didn't hate each other as much as Rose and Scorpius hated each other. In some ways, it was easier to be a guy. No guy ever holds a grudge as long as a girl.  
"Strange to protect her. As far as I'm concerned, all her scars are from our fights. It's strange now, I mean: I don't hate her, but still…the scars are still at the same place. It isn't over, if you know what I mean," Scorpius said. Scorpius had never been so honest to someone, well, except for Albus. After Hogwarts and their Auror training, they ended in the same group of guys as colleagues. They had survived cases close to hell, which really had bonded them. It was why Scorpius trusted Frank. He could talk to him about this stuff.  
"I get it. There was so much tension between the two of you. Actually, there still is. I think you two will always fight, but I also think there's more than that," Frank added. He leaned against the kitchen table and Scorpius got himself a drink too.  
"You know about New Year's Eve?" Scorpius asked him.  
"That you were here, instead of Al? Yeah," Frank said.  
"We actually talked to each other and she gave me a chance and I gave her a chance. We were honest with each other and got together that night, but since then she's refusing every single time that I'm not even close to offering and I hate it. Because I know that we don't know each other very well than the things we don't like, or that we couldn't get along in the past, but I don't care. I want to get to know her and stuff, because I…kinda begin to like her!" Scorpius exclaimed. A red blush filled his face for a second, but then he cooled down and it flew away.  
"Wow, an one night stand? On New Year's Eve? That's…risky. You must know that Rose is a mess right now – but you probably already knew that, as you were listening to everything we said. We all didn't like Nick, but Rose isn't as coldhearted as everyone thinks she is. On top of that she has her job and the fact that she's in need of a bodyguard – if she dislikes one thing, it's that she isn't able to protect herself. She's insecure, Malfoy, and I would really beware of your feelings and saying those things. Firstly, try to talk to her, because I really think that if she moves on and let it go, she's able to see what is happening here. Secondly, be patient. Rose needs her time and it's only for the best. Like you said: the two of you don't really know each other other than hatefull things and now your habits when you're at home. Give it time." Frank patted his friend on the shoulder and laughed.  
"Didn't expect you to be such a sucker for love, Malfoy!" He joked.  
"Hey, I never said love!" Malfoy defended laughingly.

:: :: ::

"Teddy, what would you do if you were gay and you have boyfriend, but your parents don't know about all that and your boyfriend wants you to come out, because he loves you that much that he can't live with the fact that you have to hide your love, but you think you aren't ready for it?" Albus asked Teddy. Teddy raised his brow and took his coat of. Harry had told him Albus wasn't quite alright and it was then that Teddy realised he needed to pay the boy a visited. He slowly sat down on a chair and thought about what exactly Albus wanted to say with those words.  
"Well, firstly, I'm not gay, secondly, I don't have a boyfriend and thirdly, I don't have parents. Also, fourthly, I'm married. With your cousin. Girl cousin. And we have a kid, Albus. So, I'm sorry, but in whatever hypothetically situation you think this would happen, I don't think it will be possible. But, Al, that doesn't mean that if you want to say something, you can't do that. Of course you can tell me everything, Al. Just...just tell me what's bothering you!" Teddy answered. Albus groaned, but knew he had to tell Teddy about himself. He basically already told him and thereby, no one would be less judgmental than Teddy. Having werewolfblood – and being sometimes extremely angry because of that – being a metamorphmagus and having no parents, helped him become this person. People always judged him and he hated it so much that he stopped judging people, or at least, he judged people as little as possible.  
"I am gay, Ted," Al said. He sighted. It was out in the open and now Teddy knew. It was there. Right there. No other words. No little stories which were only further from the truth.  
"I'm proud of you, Al," Teddy said. He smiled at him and didn't say anything about how much he expected it already.  
"Mum and dad don't know about it and I hate that, but I don't know what to do. I don't want to lose Eric, but I also don't want to start a fight or tension in the family!" he said. Teddy just nodded and let him speak.  
"Eric and I have been together since…since forever and I hate our fights and I get why he doesn't want to hide anymore. It's just…I don't want to…I mean…you know the family!" Al stopped talking and sighted. He was sitting on the couch. The couch where Eric and he never sat so quietly as he sat there right now. Teddy sat on the chair he always sat on when he visited…them. Eric and he lived together, but, lucky for them, his parents always announced when they were coming. Most of that time, Eric wasn't there or in the background. Teddy shifted on his seat and took a sip of his drink.  
"Al, you have to do what you want, because it's your life. Besides, you told me about Rose and Scorpius. I don't think you will be the only one to shock the family." Teddy grinned. Albus laughed with him. Slowly, but with every second more genuine. It was out there and he was so relieved. Laughter could turn into crying right now, so Albus tried to focus on Rose.  
"She hates me. I know it. I spoke Frank a while ago and he said that Rose's feelings are fucked up. It clearly doesn't help that Scorpius is with her and from what Frank told me, Scorpius is already falling," Albus announced. Teddy grinned and ran a hand through his hair.  
"It doesn't surprise me. Do you remember when Rose first met him? They were like enemies from the beginning, which was only a laugh for Ron and Draco, of course." Teddy smiled.  
"You can call him _Draco_?" Albus said surprised. Even he - Scorpius's best friend - didn't dare to say that.  
"Well, he's my cousin or something like that, of course. You know, his mother and my grandmother were sisters, so that makes him family," he answered. Albus looked up, surprised.  
"So that was why they insisted on meeting Scorpius?" he asked and Teddy nodded.  
"You know your father; nothing is more important than family. They didn't expect that in the end, you and Scorpius would become best friends," he grinned again. Albus put his glasses back on and smiled at Teddy. Teddy's hair turned a bit more blue.  
"Don't you ever wonder how the real you looks like?" Albus asked.  
"You know: changing my looks costs energy, so when I'm tired, I know what I look like and most of the time I don't want to hide that," Teddy answered. His blue hair was a bit too long, Albus saw, but he laughed widely.  
"I think my natural color is blue or turquoise. I'm not sure, but I quite like it. It's as strange as the ginger curse that reigns your family," Teddy said and Albus hit him.  
"Lucky for me I inherited my father's hair!" he answered while ruffeling his hand through his black, messy hair.  
"Lily must feel like the lonely ginger in your family," Teddy joked, before realizing what he had said. It was suddenly quiet in the room and for a while, none of them dared to speak.  
"How is she?" Teddy asked, breaking the silence.  
"I don't know. Haven't talked to her in a while," Albus answered. Looking at his mug, he realized how stupid he was. Drowning because of a boy, instead of looking out for his only sister.

:: :: ::

Rose sat in her bedroom for a while when her best friends had left. She thought about what they had said and the guy who was living in the same house as her. She never thought they would live together – even if it was because of this. She rolled the sleeve of her shirt up and there it was. On the inside of her upper arm was a big scar. Her arms had been in the air when he had placed an injury on her arm. A bad injury, which left a scar. Touching it still made her shiver. There was a time at Hogwarts when they really hated each other so much, they were convinced only hurting each other would be the solution. It ended well, at least, most times. Most people just noticed that they didn't like each other very much. It had begun in the time where Rose became much more aware of herself. Before that, she hated Malfoy all along, but mostly avoided him. When she became aware of herself and the fact that perhaps she wasn't that ugly, she decided to strike back. She hadn't been the brave Gryffindor, just so she could see how that Slytherin hated her. After that summer, their fourth year began and Lily had persuaded Rose on buying make-up and stuff to make her hair look better. The glasses had been replaced by contact lenses and her shy smile became a genuine smile. Their fights weren't that bad, as it were only words. The next summer, Rose was assigned to spend her holiday with her cousins Dominique and Roxanne – better known as Do and Rox. Do had been the first one in their family to enter Slytherin and after that, everybody knew that Rox would follow her. They weren't like the mean or pure blood supporters as Rose's father had always told Rose how Slytherins were. Uncle Harry had told them that Slytherin's traits were cunning, resourcefulness and ambition. They would consider their options before acting and were mostly seen as strong leaders. Even her father had changed his opinion about Slytherin in general, because of Do, Rox and later of Al. His opinion about Malfoy's didn't change, so in the end, nothing really changed. Do and Rox had been really un-lady-like, as aunt Fleur liked to call it. As much as Victoire loved to dress up, Do hated it. Nobody really understood how they were such opposites, but able to get along well despite that. They used to fight like every minute of the day, but as they grow older, they started to respect each other's choices and stopped. Do remained the same adventures woman as Victoire remained the princess. Rox had always looked up at her big cousin. Although they diverged one or two years, Do was always the older one. Later on, they became more like equals and nowadays, Do works with uncle Charlie with dragons in Romania and Rox works with her dad, uncle George, in the shop. Although Rox didn't really work in the shop, but designed new material. In the summer before Rose's fifth year began, Do and Rox had planned a holiday together, but due to circumstances, which Rose didn't even remember, Rose went with them. There she learned how to look good, but still powerful and cool. After that summer, Rose was almost a gothic ginger. That phase stopped quickly, as she thought it was too dark, but she went on with the attitude. Rose wasn't afraid to fight and this time, injuries were following. Rose remembered the first time they had a real fight. Scorpius had seen her as 'Al's little cousin' and didn't expect her to really fight. Suddenly, she started to fight and she used a spell that broke his arm. He immediately used _levicorpus_ on her. In his anger, he casted the spell that had left the scar. Both of them were scared by the amount of blood that came out of her arm. Too proud to cry, Rose had run quickly to the hospital wing where Hannah Longbottem worked. Knowing that the entire family would hear what happened, Rose told her that she'd practiced a spell and it went wrong. Above that, she had fallen on the ground by seeing the blood. Madam Longbottem had been a bit skeptical about the whole story, but decided to let it go and to nurse her. When Rose became aware that this injury would leave a scar, she decided that this, whatever it was, wasn't over. So she took her wand with her and surprised him. Over and over again. In the end it came down to sixteen broken bones and seven scars. In order to stay alive, Rose had a pact with Madam Longbottem. She wouldn't tell anyone about what the real reason behind those injuries were – when Scorpius and she came in her wing like every week, she started to see a pattern – and Rose would try to get hold of herself. In their seventh year, they ended as two sworn, but unnoticed enemies and Rose thought it would stay like that. She didn't expect them to see each other that much, only because of Al. Above that, she didn't expect them to sleep together, just because they had to stick together at New Year's Eve. On top of that, she didn't expect to feel something afterwards. Rose thought it had been guilt. Guilt towards Nick. Guilt towards Al. She really thought she couldn't be more messed up, but that was before she'd talked to Helga. Talking to Helga made her realize that there could be something going on.  
No, she told herself. _No!_ This was _not_ going to happen. It had been good to refuse him when he asked her out. Why didn't she refuse him before that? Now she wasn't able to forget him. His smell, his looks, his body. How good he had felt and how much she had wanted him at that moment. How nothing she'd ever experienced could compare to this.  
No. She wasn't like that and she had to stop. She had to think about the scars they had given to each other. The hate they shared. That was the only real thing about them.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Updated**: December 2 (2015)

* * *

"Mum, dad, I have to tell you something," Albus said. He was standing in the living room and was already afraid to admit this to the air in his house - which was completely ridiculous because the air had already seen him...doing all the gay stuff. He paced from bench to bench and thought of the best way to tell his parents the truth.

"No, no, no, not like that. That sounds ridiculous and-and-and..." he interrupted himself. He already saw the looks of his parents when he would say it like that. No. He couldn't do it like that. Of course not. Was he mad?

"Mum and dad, please don't hate me..." he tried, but realized it would be totally stupid to say something like that too. His mother would be so afraid that he made a girl pregnant or something. James would probably laugh a lot when his mother would say that - for _once _it wasn't him who made someone pregnant, even though he didn't know all the girls. But wasn't that the problem? It didn't really matter what he said or how he tried to apologize, his parents would always suspect it was some bad _straight_ thing. Did he really need to tell his parents? What about...he wouldn't tell his parents?

"No, no, no!" he shouted. He turned around and tried again. He should tell them, he really should. Perhaps asking would help?

"Mum, dad?" he asked. That was wrong too. It looked like he was so insecure - which he was, but still, it would be nice to have some confidence.

"No, no, that's totally not how..." he begun, but was so frustrated that he decided to shout.

"I'M GAY, OKAY?" He had shouted it. The ground was trembling and the wand in his hand was lighting up.

"_Shit!_" Albus screamed. Eric's favorite chair was now on fire and as quick as possible, he tried to fix it.

It had been a normal Wednesday evening for Albus. The whole evening, nothing had happened. He watched some tv – a muggle thing he picked up from Rose – and there it was. On the television had been a stupid muggle series where this stupid in-the-closet-gay just had his very emotional coming out scene. Albus despised him, because this guy dared to come out and he didn't. If even that guy could do it, he could do it too, couldn't he?

Yeah right. He couldn't. He was this total bitch that wasn't able to come out of the closet. Oh, how he missed Lily these days. Rose was sweet and helpful, but no one was ever able to get through him, the way Lily did. Perhaps it was time. Time to write her a letter and to discover where she had been hiding. She couldn't hide forever.

:: :: ::

_Dear Lily,_

_I hope that Hedwig II is able to find you, because I really need to talk to you. Things are getting a bit out of control. With Rose, for example, or with me. Above all, things are getting out of hand with you. Where are you Lily? I know you're ashamed of yourself – ashamed, or I don't even know what else and I'm so afraid because of that Lily - but no one is judging you. Everybody is missing you, instead of angry. Mum and dad aren't looking for you anymore, nor is anyone else. We know that you need your time, but please, don't keep us at the outside. We love you and we miss you. We shouldn't do otherwise, because you're our family. Families stick together, no matter what._

_Please write me back or come back. It is lonely without you there._

_Al_

Lily sighted and put the letter on the kitchen table. It wasn't her kitchen table that she was putting this letter on. It wasn't even her chair she was sitting on. The only thing that was really hers was the letter in her hand. It made her realize that he was right. Al, of all people, was right. He had never been really good at expressing his feelings and this letter was thereby very special. Sadly enough she _wanted_ to hear Al's problems with Eric or if Rose and Scorpius were finally together or not – even though she missed a few months, she knew exactly who were meant for each other and who not. She _missed_ it. They would probably end up not like they were meant to be if she wouldn't be there to fix everything, Lily knew. Perhaps it was a bit selfish to say something like that about herself, but she knew it was true and she wasn't sorry for that. She liked to help her cousin and brother. She liked the way they thought of her. She wasn't this little girl anymore, but she was one of them and that made her proud. Besides that, both of them had a pretty crappy love life because they didn't admit their true selves to themselves.

Lily never intended to leave her home or her loved ones. Her future and the ones for her friends were going exactly the way she knew they would be. She loved her job as a columnist in the Daily Prophet. Scratching and deleting the rumors about her family, so they could live in a bit more peace than they had lived before. She remembered the press so well when her first day at Hogwarts started. Or at the World Cup. Or...yeah. The list went on and on. There had been rumors about everyone, but mostly not someone in particular. And then, the day came. The day that _she_ was the rumor of the day. The piece of trash in the paper. It had been the day she'd graduated from Hogwarts. Finding herself in a local magical pub, she hadn't even thought about someone following her. She had been with her best friends. Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, the twin she knew from birth and her lovely cousin Hugo. It was in that place, when Lorcan finally decided to make his move towards Lily and in the joy of their mutual feelings, they kissed. Lily and Lorcan were kissing, not in a very decent or even appropriate way, and in the middle of the pub. Her family and she had been a bit awkward, but afterwards laughed at the whole incident. Lily and Lorcan became a couple and made sure that they wouldn't be this close in the sight of the press again, but that didn't stop the press writing about her - and only her - for a long time. It was one of the reasons why she stopped with her study in potions and started as a columnist. Every bit of gossip went straight towards her. It was a relief to stop so much drama for her family, until the moment came that everything went to far. The moment when she saw two pictures of the same guy, who she loved so much. After three years of being together - she just turned twenty - it happened. The first picture showed her boyfriend buying an engagement ring. After seeing that picture, Lily had been so happy and overexcited, she had informed her entire family about the fact. The next picture, which she got a few hours later, was her boyfriend proposing. To someone else. After searching for an answer, she found out that it wasn't her boyfriend who did this, but his very look-a-like and identical brother, Lysander. Lorcan had been so angry with her. How could she ever be thinking that he would cheat on her? After that, Lily discovered that she was pregnant. Lorcan would become a dad, but he didn't even want to talk to her. So Lily run. Only that way she could finally take a real break from all the rumors and everyone who had really high expectations of her because she was the daughter of 'The Chosen One.' The only problem was her pregnancy. It had given her a time limit. From the start Lily had known that there would be a day she needed to come home, but she'd never really thought about it. Sweetly she caressed her belly. Maybe...maybe it was time.

:: :: ::

"So, Scamander, I heard some rumors," Cedric Vance began. He was a few years older than Lorcan, and was the leader of their department in the hospital.

"Do I even want to know?" Lorcan sighted. When Cedric came with rumors, they were mostly true or too absurd to be true. Seeing that Cedric didn't had a smile on his face, Lorcan was afraid.

"I guess someone has to tell you," Cedric answered. He smiled weakly at him and gestured that he should be sitting on a chair.

"You were in a relationship with Lily Potter, right?" Cedric asked him and Lorcan sighted immediately. This was the point that Cedric told him that Lily was engaged or even married. That she was better off without him and hadn't missed him the slightest.

"Yes, I was," he said. He had missed her. He had missed her so much. His reaction had been a bit extreme. He shouldn't have abandoned her in his life, but it was just that moment right there. No one ever knew the difference between his brother and him and he thought Lily of all people, was able to see the difference. Besides that, she accused him of cheating. He was angry, but he knew he needed a bit of time. He didn't mean to be angry of her for his whole life. The minute he realized where this really had been about, Lorcan realized he had to get her back, but not without the thing Lily wanted the most. He had bought a ring for her, a beautiful one. She just wanted him to propose and that had actually been the biggest compliment she could ever give him.

"Mate?" Cedric asked and he looked up.

"Yeah?"

"Lily's pregnant," was what Cedric said.

"Pregnant?" Lorcan asked and Cedric nodded. Pregnant. She was pregnant.

"But...who is the father?" he asked.

"I don't know. What I do know is that she has a big belly. Like really big," Cedric said and Lorcan nodded. So Lily did move on. Pregnant. Wow. Lorcan realized he was screwed. He could've had a chance when Lily would just have a boyfriend and even if she'd be married, there would be a way they could work it out, but pregnant?

"How do you know all this?" Lorcan asked. Perhaps it would be a big rumor. Like really big. Like as in a pregnant belly big rumor.

"Lorcan, you do realize we work in a hospital and she's pregnant, don't you?" Cedric said. He laughed and Lorcan laughed immediately with him. She was back. Okay, pregnant, but she was back. At least she could talk to him.

"Where is she?" he asked. He should talk to her. He really needed to talk to her. They could sort things out. They could...

"Lorcan, I just said that I didn't know who the father was, so I don't think it will be very convenient to walk into her room and to see her again. Give her some time. Besides: her family will be there, it'll be busy enough in there." Cedric patted his shoulder and walked away.

"Break is over, your patients are waiting," he added and Lorcan sighted again. What was he supposed to do?

:: :: ::

"I want...THIS bed!" Helga said, popping onto the massive king-sized bed that was standing in front of them.

"I bet you want that bed," Frank laughed. Seeing her on that bed, lying in that kind of composition, he just had to hold himself together.

"Is it too expensive? It is, isn't it? Yeah...oops, it really is. Let's look further!" Helga stood up, after double-checking the price tag. It really was a perfect bed. In her mind, she could see herself lying on that bed with a few children. All fitting in the same bed.

"Well, we can always buy a simple bed and use an expansion spell," she suggested and Frank laughed again. She didn't want that, because everybody knew that something like that didn't lie as nice as a real king-sized bed.

"Hey Frank?" she said and Frank gave her a smirk.

"Yeeeees?" he answered.

"If I ask my father for some money – he has too much anyways – do you think we can buy the bed then?" she suggested and he laughed.

"You want that bed that much, huh?" he said. He kissed her on top of her head and she smiled like little girl.

"It's perfect and you know it! We both can't pay it – I don't even know how we're going to pay our house – but we have to buy it!" Helga said.

"I paid our house, remember? Don't worry about that. If you pay the furniture, then that is settled," Frank joked and Helga pushed him away with a smile on her face.

"Okay, I'm gonna call my dad then," she said. She winked at Frank, as she knew what this would mean.

"Don't say that your dad is going to kill me!" he reacted and she just laughed.

"Well, you did use the moving-in-move, so now you have to deal with the consequences," she answered. She wiggled her eyebrows and he just laughed at her. The only thing he could do right now, was laughing. He was so happy. So happy to be with his girl. So happy that she wanted to move in. So happy to be together.

:: :: ::

"How is she?" Rose asked. She had insisted on going to the hospital – saying that if something happened to her, there would be enough people to take care of her. Scorpius stood by, somewhere in the back. She didn't really need to convince him. He knew Lily really well, as she was his best friend's little sister.

"She's doing alright. It was a long journey and for a pregnant woman, it's very heavy," her mother answered. She tried to act cheerful, but she was full of worries.

"Lorcan is the dad, isn't he?" her dad asked and Rose nodded. At least Lily had told her that before she went away.

"She doesn't want to say to anyone, but she has to, sometime. She's almost six months now! But I'm glad she's back and I don't want to push it," Rose said and her mother smiled.

"Albus and Hugo are inside now. Plus Harry and Ginny, of course, but they don't want to leave her," her mother said. Rose laughed.

"You would kill me if I ever left everyone while being pregnant," Rose said and her mother laughed with her. Behind her, Scorpius shifted his feet. He was clearly not comfortable the way Rose was in her family. When he was with Al's family, he was alright, but in between ignoring her father's deadly looks and Rose totally ignoring him, he couldn't really be comfortable.

"Yeah, well, Lily was always a bit more like Ginny, so I guess we could somehow expect it," she said. Rose gave her mother a surprised look and her mother smiled at her.

"Ginny and Harry had to fix stuff, just like everyone else, but when Ginny discovered she was pregnant, she knew that Harry wasn't able to be the loving father he wanted to be. Even with Teddy, he was a mess sometimes. So Ginny walked away, giving Harry a chance to think about everything and two weeks later Harry decided that it would be okay to move on," her mother said. Rose was surprised. Her family didn't talk very much about what happened in the war, what happened soon after or the ways the war had influenced their lives. Everybody seemed to be happy at the moment, but Rose knew that her parents confronted the war every day. The scar on her mothers arm was a true scar and she had a lot of nightmares. It was also the reason why – despite the many fights – she and her father never went apart. Rose remembered the times when her mother was crying and yelling in the middle of the night over and over again. After that she always heard her father mumbling something and every morning when she woke up earlier than her parents, she discovered that they were holding each other as tight as possible. They needed each other. They needed to find peace with the other.

"I'm going in now, is that okay?" Rose asked and the Healer nodded.

"Yes, but not for long. She has had to many visitors already, but just you and that's all!" answered the Healer. Rose waved sarcastically cheerfully at Scorpius – finally she could be without him – and walked into the room.

"Hi Lily," she said. Lily smiled weakly, but Rose could see she was in pain. Albus and Hugo sat there on the chairs and left them alone.

"James couldn't come?" Rose asked and Lily nodded.

"Way to busy with Quidditch of course. Couldn't expect anything else from him. You know who recently was replaced as Keeper in his team?" Lily asked. Rose shook her head.

"No? Who?" Rose answered. Lily laughed hard and smiled bright.

"Eric. Eric Vance. I laughed so hard when James told me," Lily said. Rose thought it was kinda weird. Lily had been gone for such a long time and still she acted like she hadn't been gone at all.

"Lil, when did you speak to James?" Rose asked.

"Oh, he didn't even know that I was gone, you know, because he's so busy with his Quidditch career. So we wrote up and down and he didn't even read the papers! So he didn't know anything and that was kinda...nice I guess? Look, Rose, I know that it wasn't fair to walk away from my problems, but I had to, you know? I really, really had to. He hurt me and I know I hurt him too, but I can move on now. I just needed to be apart from the rumors too, actually, so it wasn't all about him. I'll be alright now. I can be a good, single mum, writing for my column and nobody is going to judge me for that, because I'm not going to let them!" Lily said, but even the smile she tried to fake was weak.

"She had had a bit of a morphine to suppress the pain," aunt Ginny explained. Rose laughed at that. Lily always had been a bit more Lily when she was drunk – or in this case: drugged.

"We talk later, Lily, okay? You better rest now," Rose said. She hoped that Lily then would act like a normal person.

"Don't drug her too much," Rose said to her aunt.

"Well, it seems to be a kind of muggle thing, but Harry insisted on using it. Apparently it is very helpful," aunt Ginny said. Still she looked a bit worried.

"It's just morphine, not poison," uncle Harry defended, but he looked a lot less worried then when he had to let Lily go.

"I think there's someone waiting for you," he added for Rose.

"Who?" Rose asked surprised.

"Your guard," grinned her uncle.

"Not funny! And knowing that Al is outside I doubt he really is waiting. He's probably just chatting like an old lady and I have to drag him along to my house," Rose sighted.

"One day, you will thank me, Rose," uncle Harry grinned. Aunt Ginny behind him shook her head and laughed a bit too.

"Not you too! And for the record: if that is ever going to happen – _if_ not _when_ – then you can be the one to tell my father!" Rose said, laughing at her own remark. Her uncle bit his lip, hiding his laughter.

"I will be at the front line, seeing how he'll react," he answered.

"Yeah, like you don't know how he will react. Did you know how he reacted when he became my guard? He almost insisted on talking to you, hoping you would fix this, but my mother calmed him – sadly," Rose said, standing at the door.

"Still, you will thank me one day. Mark my words."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Updated**: December 6 (2015)

* * *

Love wasn't something you'd learn by living in Malfoy Manor. His mother did say it very often to him - whenever he went to Hogwarts or any other time he went away - but he'd only heard the word leave her mouth once when it wasn't meant for him. His grandmother Greengrass had passed away and his mother whispered in tears: "I love you," to his father, like he was the only one she'd left. The fact that they didn't use the word that much, didn't mean that they were cold. No, not in the slightest was the Malfoy family cold. They had really cozy and funny Friday evenings together. They visited museums or important cities together and had all the fun. Mostly, their money showed their love as both those things were equally meaningless. Money was something nobody wanted to touch, even though there was so much of it. The money almost was a curse. It was almost fake. To be fair, part of the money really was fake, because his grandfather Malfoy hadn't earned it in a rightful manner. Regardless, they used the money. To buy a house – and for his father: a new life.

Scorpius never particularly liked his own house or family. It was big - way too big for only three people - and his family could be a bit emotionless or severe. The war left scars all over them and Scorpius knew that his father had a debt he was never able to fully repay. It was a harsh life and a harsh world. Until the moment came he met a new family. Teddy Lupin came into his life and thereby the son of his godparents, Albus Potter. Albus had been the most amazing kid Scorpius knew. The only kids he'd known were the children of his parents's friend and the children he'd met at the primary school his mother wanted him to go to. Since he incurred fear in most children, they became his minions to manipulate and toy with until he got his way, but Albus was different. He wasn't afraid of him and just told him 'No' whenever he didn't want to do something. He just played with him and accepted him.

The next wonder came a second later. The second that Rose Weasley came to join them. Nowadays he realized that perhaps her father had whispered his name into her ears since her birth and that would be why she hated him, but back then it looked like she'd never heard of him either. It had been weird. Weird and random. She stood there and looked at him. He did the same. They looked at each other and it was immediately over. She decided to talk and it had been the worst decision she ever made. Their first fight had begun and they had never really stopped.

Why did she hate him so much? Was it because of her father? Was it because of _his_ father? At least his father didn't begin to talk about Albus's and her family until he got his Hogwarts letter and then he realized he'd met the most extraordinary family in the whole wizard world.

Why did _he_ hate _her_ so much? It wasn't because of his father - or hers, for that matter. It had been because it was the most natural thing to feel around her. Every time she came into a room, so many feelings exploded in his head. His only way to express himself was by...hate.

Those feelings weren't love per se. Those feelings were strong and now it was obvious for Scorpius that no matter what would happen in the future, one without Rose wouldn't be possible. He would either hate her so much that he would plan every single move to make her beg for mercy - like he did at Hogwarts - or love her that it would hurt so much to be even one inch away from her. It destroyed him. She destroyed him. Those feelings were much more complicated than he'd ever thought they were.

Scorpius Malfoy didn't believe in 'The One' or 'Meant To Be,' but he did believe this.

Rose Weasley was a very special girl.

:: :: ::

It had been five years ago. Five years, when something started out of nowhere. Their relationship had the same kind of beginning as the thing that was going on between she and another guy now. When Rose saw Nick, she had met him before. Not that she particularly liked him, but she also didn't particularly not liked him either. There was one S.M.L.-party where she learned that her fellow Studies of Ministry Law students were much more fun than she thought. Rose got drunker than she should've been and the next morning she woke up in Nick's apartment. Instead of that they were lying in some kind of decent muggle-film-morning-after kind of way; she had been lying on the floor. When she got up, she saw Nick lying on his bed, seeing every little detail of his naked body. Rose tried to sneak out, but Nick had heard her and with a bit of a blush on his face, he invited her for breakfast. That blush had been the first thing Rose noticed and liked about him. It was pure and cute. The blush showed Rose that Nick wasn't used to this kind of passionate drunk sex and the awkward morning after. He wasn't a total asshole about it and he didn't talk about it to anyone either. It was cute, really cute. So Rose accepted his offer and it ended in a five-year relationship with trust issues and a cheater. It wasn't that she didn't know Nick before. As a matter of fact - she did. At Hogwarts they also went out for a while but after that their paths separated. What happened between those years and the day she went out with Nick? What happened to her that she was suddenly ready for a serious relationship and what happened to him that he wasn't? If there were anything Rose could've redone in her life, it would be the moment when she accepted Nick's offer. She should've said no. It would chance everything.

What kind of reason Scorpius had to screw her, didn't even matter to Rose. They screwed. It wasn't only his fault. Asking her out, _that_ had been his fault and it was only a correction when she said no. Before she would know, she would be thirty, left alone because of another cheater. Everybody knew Scorpius's heart. It didn't beat for one girl only. Even though Scorpius had told her he longed to a girl, one girl, she knew that it wouldn't be her. Noticing their age, they would probably be engaged or pregnant by five years later. Breaking up would be nasty. No. Saying no had been the rightful thing to say. The only thing to say, actually. There wasn't another option.

It still felt like she was not only ruining his mood, but also hers. Every time that he came by to check on her (every ten minutes) and every time he tried to speak to her (every hour), Rose wished that he left her alone. She counted the minutes she had to wait for him, but then she counted the seconds before he would leave. The end of the day had been the same since the day after New Year's Eve. He had smiled to her and when he looked at her, he would look like he was dreaming. Seeing that look, Rose could only think about the time they had been together. About how it had felt. How it really felt like. To be loved.

It was the feeling that Nick and she never had. They didn't had fireworks and sparkling things or glitters. They hadn't been unicorns on rainbows. They had been simple. And for then, simple had been enough. Rose didn't know how it felt to be loved like this. Like Scorpius had made her feel that night. That was something, she had never felt before and it pained her heart to walk away from that.

But was good to do so. She didn't even know him. All those feelings were based on everything they'd been through together. The fights, the ignorance and that one time at New Year's Eve. Perhaps this would be a good way to get to know him better, but Rose knew that after her second hearing – which was only in two weeks – decisions would be made and it would be over in half a year. Their friendship - or whatever they could work on to become more civil to each other - would end there, because there would be no reason to see each other again.

In the time of her parents, lawyers didn't exist in the Wizengamot. It was rare to even have a spokesperson on behalf of a defendant, but times were changing. The Muggle-born register had demonstrated that Muggle's weren't even able to defend themselves, because nobody listened to them. Lawyers became necessary, because they would survey the case and had to be trusted. Lawyers were the ones who needed to drink a sip of truth serum, before and after the case, and answer a simple question: "Do you speak the truth?" This test wasn't hundred percent trustworthy, but it was better than in the Muggle courtyard. Her mother had told her everything about the whole process and the making-off of this section in the Magical Law Department and Rose loved it. From the moment her cousins taught her how to stand up against Malfoy, she knew that there were people who couldn't learn that from someone. She wanted to be the one to defend them.

And now she was here. Doing the lawyer case of the century and every other lawyer was jealous of her. She was only twenty-five years old. Twenty-five. Most lawyers needed to prove themselves and be forty years old, if they didn't need to be older. The first lawyers were very experienced people of the age of fifty. When students finally wanted to take their program, they realized it wasn't easy to become a respected lawyer. Thirty years later made the first students now fifty years old and not very kind to the students that came in. Some of those people had been very jealous of Rose. She was well respected, but it had been the name of her parents that really made everyone let her do what she wanted to do. Even though Rose tried hard to show them this was her doing, not her parents, not everyone believed it. It changed when she accepted the offer of her boss. The offer to do a trial like this. A trial that was in conflict with what her parents had fought for. A trial that would show the world her own power.

:: :: ::

Their house was almost ready, but Helga didn't want to talk to everyone that soon. She still wanted to enjoy their house and not share it with others. She wanted to keep dreaming, instead of facing reality. Reality wasn't that bad, perhaps, but it meant leaving the house for work or grocery shopping even, while she wanted to stay in bed and be close to Frank. Today her parents would come to check out the house – and the bed her father had paid a fortune for. Her brother Godric said he came too. Most likely the best friends of her parents would come and make bad jokes. Fred told her he would pass by later, but Rox would come at the same time as her parents. Albus would visit them, of course, but without Eric and even Rose told her she would come – even though Scorpius said no when she suggested it. It was nice to have so many friends and family who cared about them, but sometimes, she just wanted to be with Frank. They had their own house now. They didn't need to share her busy flat or his tiny, dirty apartment. In their own house, they were able to be alone and together, at the same time.

Helga was lying in her bed. Their bed. Their huge, king-sized, room filling bed. Frank, however, had left her hours ago, because he needed to go to work. Helga had said no to her work for the third time this week and she knew she had to work someday. Tomorrow, she promised Frank every day, but today she knew that tomorrow would really be tomorrow. Frank had promised he would home at diner time, so everyone could join them and a tour would be after diner. Helga had promised she would make this special diner with really special food and everything, but when she glared at her watch, she saw it was already getting late.

"I love you bed," Helga whispered to the bed. She turned around and for the first time in a few days, she took a shower, put her clothes on and left the house. It was hard and it was almost like she was afraid what would happen to the house if she wouldn't be in there, but she let it go and walked to the grocery shop. She smiled at her new neighbors who congratulated her on her house. When she came home and cooked diner, she laughed at herself. She'd needed those days, but she did like it better to have more people around her.

:: :: ::

Albus remembered the first time he kissed, really well. It was with a girl whose name he didn't even remember. It was weird and it didn't feel right. He felt the same thing with the next girl. And the next. And so on. The girl wasn't the problem. She sometimes almost lost it when they kissed, while he was surprised that she felt anything at all. The girls were pretty or kind or smart, but none of that was what Albus liked. It was weird when Eric touched him if he felt bad. A simple gesture to tell him he was here for him, made Albus's heart bonk louder and louder than any girl had. He thought it was because Eric told him he was gay. He thought he couldn't accept his best friend. He was wrong. He did accept Eric, but he didn't accept himself.

And then the invitation came. A reunion. Albus showed up. Eric showed up. They spoke and Albus felt his raising heartbeat. He felt weird things again, but the more alcohol he drunk, the more relaxed he became. Eric touched his hand and he slowly smiled. He didn't sweat or anything. They leaned against each other, when truth-or-dare begun. Most people had already left. Rose hadn't and Rose knew. Rose, who always knew him better then he knew himself. Next to her was Scorpius, who smiled. When it was Rose's turn, Scorpius whispered something into her ear and that had started everything.

"I dare you, Albus, to kiss Eric," Rose had said. With a huge smile on their faces, Rose and Scorpius waited until he reacted. Albus smiled and turned to see Eric's face. Eric looked at the ground and didn't really react. Albus lifted Eric's head up and smiled. He kissed him and realized that these were the kind of things all those girls felt when they kissed. What started as a simple kiss, ended in the both of them drowning into each other. Drunk. Then it was Albus's time to give someone a dare. Rose had been too drunk to remember, but Albus didn't really know if Scorpius remembered. He gave Scorpius the same dare that Rose had given him.

"Kiss Rose," he'd said. They kissed too and that had been weird. According to Scorpius, he'd slept that night in his own bed, but Albus didn't really want to believe that. It wasn't his first priority either, because Eric had kissed him and _Merlin_ it felt fantastic. _He_ didn't end up in his own bed.

:: :: ::

Eric visited his cousin as often as he was able to visit him. In this type of times, Cedric could be a real Healer. The time when Albus and he broke up for the first time, he'd talked to Cedric about it. Had he been too harsh? Had he pushed him too much? Did Albus love him enough to let him in again? It was the time that he and Albus were broken up for the shortest amount of times in their history. Two days. The longer they stayed together, the more they broke up and the longer it lasted to be back together again. This time was different. Different than all those times. It felt like Albus didn't even accept him, which was very logical. How could Albus accept him, if he couldn't even accept himself? So Eric walked away, knowing that it would be for the last time. If they would ever get back together, he wouldn't leave. It would be for forever and it would mean that Albus had to come out in order to get back together. He really wanted to help him and to say to him that everything was going to be all right. He really wanted to support him through the tuff time after telling everyone you love. He wanted to be there. He wanted it, so badly, but he couldn't be rejected one more time. If he would hear Albus's mum saying "they were such good friends" one more time, he would explode and tell everyone they weren't "just friends". But it wasn't his call to make. It was Albus's. Saying those things would make Albus hate him and end things for ever, so he really needed to be distant.

Distant. Really distant. When James came to him, saying they needed a new Keeper, Eric had said "yes". It was before he and Albus were broken up. The irony only hit him later. He didn't want to be James's Keeper. He wanted to be Albus's.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Updated**: December 13 (2015)

* * *

"We need to talk." It wasn't even a question. Scorpius just bombarded Rose's office and stood still. It was a quest. Rather now than later. He knew they needed to talk for a long time now, but finally he had the courage to actually say something. It was true that he needed to protect her, but the woman could be terrifying from time to time - not that he would ever admit that.

"Do we?" Rose asked. She, however, didn't even bother to look up. He sighted. Of course this wouldn't be easy and of course Rose wouldn't make it any easier. She just acted like nothing happened and that would be okay, only if for a fact he knew that he couldn't do the same. So yes, Rosie, they do need to talk.

"You know we do," he answered, thereby. He tried his best not to sound too moody, but at the way Rose was still not really in the mood to show her interest, he knew he'd failed.

"Do I?" she asked. He sighted and looked at her. Why couldn't he just talk to her, telepathically if necessary, so she just had to listen? Why wouldn't she just shut up already and give him the opening he was looking for? Why did she make it her mission to make everything so hard for him? Why couldn't she just... - ah, shove it, it was Rose Weasley for Merlin's sake, of course she wouldn't make it any easier for him.

"Shut up, Rose," he answered. He just needed her to listen to him. To let him tell her the truth. And if she wouldn't make it any easier for him, he wouldn't make it any easier for her too. Acting like he was irritated and walking away wasn't an option. Making her mad actually was.

"It's 'Rose' now, isn't it? Surely you don't expect me to call you 'Scorpius' or something like that?" she reacted. He rolled his eyes. This wasn't the way he wanted to talk to her. This wasn't the way they should talk to each other. Not anymore. That time was over. It was childish and foolish. They'd grown up, right? Sure he hadn't. Some thoughts from before even proved that. No more irritated reactions, he'd promised himself. Just tell her the truth.

"We both know that New Year's Eve did happen and we can ignore it, but it still happened," Scorpius began. He hoped she would say something to...inspire him somehow, but she didn't.

"Yeah, it did happen. Sex happens, Malfoy, you know that better than I do," she said. Scorpius didn't laugh, but just sighted. Again. Grow up, don't do anything stupid, let her be the child, he forced himself to calm down and continue.

"You know, Rose, you have your mouth full of things you like to say about me. Most things are true, probably, and I won't lie about that. Still, now I want to talk to you to make things better and you are rejecting me. I don't get that!" he said. He leaned against the door and his face was heated. Calming down wasn't exactly an option, was it? He wasn't really good at this, he realised - not that she was any better, ignoring the current situation was even worse than becoming angry about it. At least they were sort of talking.

"But I don't want to talk and that's the thing. You think that we have a history, which can be forgiven and forgotten, but I'm not like that. I don't want to talk and heal things. I don't want us to be friendly or anything like that. I just want to be finished with my case, so you can leave my house and we never have to speak again," Rose answered. She wasn't exactly calm, but definitely calmer than he was. Her face was a bit red and the blush spread to her neck and Merlin knows where. Scorpius swallowed and tried not to be that obvious. It wasn't true, he told himself. The way she'd acted around him that night, even before twelve o'clock, were how he'd seen her acting around her family. She did act friendly around him and it just went like that. He didn't have to do anything to make himself feel better or anything. It was just...right.

"So after everything that has happened, you just want to be silent again?" he asked. He turned around to walk away. He knew she would make some she-thinks-to-be-intelligent answer and then it would be over. He was waiting for that reaction, because he knew that it wasn't the way she felt, even though she said she did. Internally he slapped himself. Living with Rose Weasley had made him obsessive with her and now he even knew what she was thinking? He really needed to shag someone soon.

"After everything? Jeez, Malfoy, that much didn't happen. We fought when we were younger, we had sex when we were a bit older and now we're not talking. I give them two names: Hormones is the first and Nothing the second," she answered. Exactly something Scorpius had expected. He walked away and convinced himself that he would ask her someday soon again. Someday that he wouldn't let himself think about what she was thinking, because as a matter of fact, he didn't know what she was thinking and he really didn't know her that well. Someday soon he'd talk to her and feel completely different because she wouldn't be crazy and he wouldn't be such a bore, obsessive stalker. Yeah, the sooner the better. Even Rose Weasley would someday give in.

:: :: ::

How dare he! How dare he talk to her like that! How dare he say to her that they needed to talk? Because of everything that happened, she didn't want to talk. He was right. Of course he was, but Rose was just too proud to admit it. She did want to talk and she did have a mouth full of him, but the thing was: she didn't know what to say. What do you say to a guy you hated for so many years and you now feel attacked too? He felt it too, that was something Rose knew. By saying the things he said, he'd admitted to her that he'd felt every single thing. She hated him. She hated him so much that she just would stop talking to him. She hated him so much that she felt so exposed in her own house. How did he know what she was thinking? The only option was to avoid him - in her own house - and not talk to him again. But how?

She would be able to see Lily at six o'clock and after suffering during a very awkward car ride, she and Scorpius were at the hospital. She waved to her mother, kissed her father goodbye and walked into her cousin's room. The only place other than the bathroom where she could be without him.

"Rose, there you are! I missed you!" Lily said. Rose smiled. They were alone. Finally her aunt and uncle had left their child alone. Perhaps Lily scared them off? It wouldn't actually surprise her, that is. Rose laughed by the thought and when Lily asked why she laughed, she explained.

"I didn't really scare them aw...okay, okay, you got me. I did scare them away!" Lily said. She blushed a bit and Rose recognized the shame.

"What's wrong?" she asked, but her cousin looked away.

"They say I'm on morphine. They say I can't really control myself until it's completely out of my system," Lily said. Her voice was broken and she was close to tears. Her emotions changed so quickly, Rose had to remind herself the girl was pregnant and she didn't need to go to a mad place.

"Lils?" Rose tried again.

"I was angry. I always hate it when they are so worried about me. I told them not to worry. I told them..." Lily continued, but a huge sob stopped her.

"You told them what?" Rose asked. She tried to be kind, sweet and caring, but she almost knew exactly what Lily was trying to say to her.

"I told them there was someone else they needed to worry about. I told them about Albus. I told them Albus was gay," she said. Soundless tears were leaving her eyes. She had joked about Albus's sexuality for a long time, even when her parents were able to hear them, but she never...never really told them.

"It wasn't my secret to tell and I did it. Albus is going to hate me, isn't he? My parents left and they called yours. To babysit me, probably. I would do that too. I totally would. I don't think it's wrong to do so, because who knows what I'm going to tell everyone? Who knows what I'm going to tell everyone about Albus's and Eric's relationship or perhaps things about you, Rose. Merlin knows how uncle Ron will react when he hears you're in love with a Malfoy! Albus will hate me. Albus will hate me so much," Lily cried. Rose stared at her and tried to calm her down. Lily was lying in her hospital bed. Crying, sobbing and sniveling. Her belly was stopping her from totally ruining her bed. Rose ignored what Lily had said about her being in and just concentrated on calming her down; which would be easy as her emotions would change even faster than the weather.

"Shhhhh," Rose said and she smiled to her cousin. The morphine and extra hormones of her pregnancy weren't exactly the best combination ever, but Rose succeeded.

"How long until you're able to leave the hospital?" Rose asked and Lily smiled at her.

"A few days. They told me my baby is healthy, but advised me to stay home. Apparently is apparating forbidden when you're pregnant and that was why they needed to do that many checks to check if the baby is alright," Lily explained. Rose laughed.

"Typically you, Lils, to not know that. Even I know that and I never got pregnant," Rose answered.

"Don't lie to me, dear cousin, you forgot that one time..." Lily began.

"That never happened!" Rose cried out.

"Ahum!" Both girls looked at the doorframe and there stood Scorpius. What a time for him to show up. Did he actually overhear their whole conversation 'for safety reasons' or had he really just opened the door?

"Why didn't you knock?" Rose said frustrated.

"I did knock!" Scorpius answered.

"Then why did you assume it was alright if you came in?" Rose went on.

"Because the Healer was about to come in too, to tell you that you needed to leave. Lily need to rest," Scorpius answered. Calmly again. His face showed he tried to hide a smirk.

"Don't be so mean Scorpius. You just wanted to leave yourself. It isn't like I can't imagine that as I know that my uncle Ron is dying to kill you!" Lily exclaimed happily. Scorpius laughed and walked towards her.

"Hi Lils, everything all right?" he asked. Lils? That was only a name friends gave to her. Not bloody bastards named Malfoy! Lily and Scorpius continued talking to each other, which seemed to be some of those standard hi-how-are-you-I'm-fine-how-are-you talks. Nothing bad. And Lily even concluded that Rose was in love with him so she would never make a move, but still. But still? Okay, something was definitely going wrong in her life.

"Care to leave, Malfoy?" Rose persuaded, but Scorpius didn't make an attempt to leave.

"I got an instruction to tell everyone here that the patient need to rest." Everyone turned around again.

"Lorcan?"

:: :: ::

"Okay, too much drama for me," Rose said. She dragged Scorpius along and left her room. Lily remained in the room, with Lorcan. Apparently he didn't know he'd walked into her room. His face was partly full of concern and the other half was full of surprise. It wasn't an attractive look - the only thing missing was a bit of drool. When his face looked normal again, she gave him a look. He looked just fine, actually. Even more handsome if that was possible. Maybe a bit ill, but it could be the shock. She, however, looked terrible. Partly because she was pregnant and partly because she was in an hospital for Merlin's sake - not a place to meet the love of your life!

"Lily?" he asked. Lily breathed in and out and didn't know what to say.

"It has been...a while," she said awkwardly.

"Yeah, definitely," he answered. He shifted his feet and stared at the ground.

"Well..." Lily started.

"...as your guests are gone and you need to rest, I'll be going," Lorcan finished.

"Oh, okay," Lily answered. She silently hoped he'd said something else.

"Sleep well," Lorcan said and he walked to the doorway.

"Thank you, Healer Scamander," Lily answered coldly. Lorcan froze and just stood there for a second. Was he really just going to walk away after everything they'd been through? She knew it was rich coming from her, but she had a remotely better excuse than he had. Plus, Lorcan never was the walking away-type. This was new. Maybe he was still in shock? Was that even possible? It could be, maybe, as he'd never been good with surprises.

Turn around, Lily wished. Even though I'm supposed to hate you and you're supposed to hate me, turn around. We're having a baby.

Turn around and talk to me. But he did something else. He closed the door, turned around and kissed her. They kissed. It had been the same shameless kiss as their first, but this one was certainly better. Too soon, he pulled away. Too soon, he realized this wasn't right – or what the hell else he was thinking. Too soon, he walked out the door. He was gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. Still in the same building. Still on the same level. Still into her heart. But out of sight. Out of everything.

Why did he do that? As a pregnant woman, he had to know she had so many hormones swimming through her body. He had to know that what he did to her, wasn't something she could easily forget. Was this his revenge? Did he hate her so much? Did he doubt her? Did he...what did he think?

:: :: ::

Why did he do it? Why did he kiss her? Why did he give in? Only because he saw Scorpius Malfoy – her brother's best friend of whom she always thought that he was handsome – and he was standing there at her bed? Standing and laughing. With his girl? Why was he so angry? Why didn't it satisfy him? Why was it such a surprise to see her lying in that particular room? Why didn't he know that it was her room? Why was his fate playing with him? He hated, hated, hated, hated, hated it, what she did to him. Why couldn't he forget her? Why did she had to kiss him back? Why did he want that he'd seen her in a bar, instead of in a hospital wing, so he was able to take her home? Why did he even want to take her home? AND WHY DID HE EVEN HAVE THAT STUPID RING?

It had been six months. Six stupid months and he'd missed her like crazy. One second of seeing her, made him want her again. Made him realize, that what he had done, was something incredibly stupid. This was madness. Everything inside of him, dragged him towards that one room. Even that stupid box was burning in his pocket. He'd been taking it with him since he'd bought it. When he would see her again, he would apologise and hear her out. Then, he would propose. Yes, that was what he'd always dreamed of, but this was so far from that. Firstly, she was pregnant. Was it even...whose baby was it? Did she just kissed him back because it happened in the spur of the moment or did she really mean it? Because that would mean that she really had some explaining to do with that whole pregnancy thing. Did he become any wiser by seeing her and kissing her? No, not even remotely. If it was possible, he'd become even more confused than everything. Maybe...maybe he could ask Cedric if he'd wanted to ask Eric, who could ask Albus, who could ask Lily - and if she wouldn't tell it, Rose and than Rode would ask Lily - whose baby it was and if she was dating someone.  
Lorcan sighted. No. That wasn't really an option either. Wether it would or wouldn't be his baby, he wanted her to tell him everything. Maybe, they still could work things out and everything could still be okay - or couldn't it?  
He groaned and thought about how crazily insane he was. She didn't look bad, though, considering. She looked heathy, somewhere a bit happy and there was a sweet smile on her face. He should be happy if she was happy. He would fight for her, this time he would, but he really should let her date anyone she liked, because it was her life. They had been together for such a long time - some distance wouldn't perhaps hurt them. Well, if she wanted it anyway. If she didn't - he would be more than happy to close all the open spaces between them.  
Lily Potter had confused him so much, he didn't even know what to do anymore - and how long he'd seen her for? Five minutes or less?

Cedric had been right. It really hadn't been convenient to walk into her room.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Updated**: January 2 (2016)

* * *

The birds whistled and her room was full of light. Rose woke up, rolling from the left side to the right side of her bed. It was empty. Her bed was empty. She lifted one eyelid and realized that she, indeed, was alone. She could've sworn someone was in her bed when she went in last night, but the empty bed proved her wrong. Was there really someone in her bed last night or did she just imagined it?Perhaps it had been Scorpius, who abused the situation, but she was too shy to ask. Either way, he would deny that he had been there and make everything look foolish. Foolish that she broke one of her rules - or thought she had - and wasn't even angry about that. Foolish that she thought they would go to bed together. Foolish that she was so worried, while he was so...relaxed. Perhaps there hadn't been anyone in her bed last night. Perhaps that wasn't even the case. Perhaps she was just missing someone. How much she hated Nick, she couldn't deny the fact how _loved_ he made her feel. All the teasing and jokes of Scorpius had made her feel weird and it had been somewhat comforting, but now that was over. Now everything was over. He was just there, protecting her like he always was told to do. He finally did his job in the way Rose had always wanted him to do, but now it wasn't enough. She cried out loud for her stupid hormones. She almost looked like Lily right now. When Scorpius was like he always had been, she wanted him to stop and now he had stopped, she _missed_ his old self. How could she, Rose Weasley, miss the old Scorpius?

_How can you think like that when you have a case in the Wizengamot in less than an hour?_

Merlin's beard. Right. She needed to concentrate. Her alarm didn't go off and now she'd missed two hours of her precious time. What did she have a "bodyguard" for if he didn't even wake her for his special moment? He wanted action, didn't he? Stupid guy. He just wasn't worth it, right?

:: :: ::

"Malfoy, before the case will start, I have to talk to Mary Dolohov first. The last time we can actually speak things through before the case starts," Rose told him, when she started to pack her stuff.

"Okay, that's alright," he murmured as an answer and she nodded.

"Alone," she added. Better they would fight about this now than when Mary would be there — or worse, the lawyer of the counterpart.

"Okay," Scorpius repeated. Rose almost raised a brow, but was for the first time lucky she never succeeded to completely learn the trick. He would leave her alone with Mary Dolohov? He wouldn't even leave her alone with her own parents and he even didn't want to leave her alone when she was with Lily. She was in an hospital at the time for Merlin's sake! But now, in the Wizengamot he was able to leave her alone with a..._criminal_?

"I have just one condition," he added. He was murmuring so softly, that she almost couldn't hear him. He surprised her again. This soft-sweet-caring-kind of voice scared her somehow, but was at least better than his professional barking.

"Which is?" she asked. Would he argue her? She didn't realize how much she'd hoped he would argue her when he answered as softly as he'd answered before.

"We're not going with that car of yours."

::: :: ::

"Mary, are you alright?" Rose asked her client. Mary wasn't like the other clients she'd had. She wasn't a trembling wife, wanting to have custody over her son, when her husband had left with him and to never come back - he'd come back though and the wife got full custody over her son, because of Rose. Mary also wasn't someone who owed a lot of people a lot of money - Rose'd won this case as well, as she'd used just the right words at the right time. Mary wasn't like this at all. She was more dangerous, more unreliable and more criminal than her other clients. When Rose asked this question, like she always asked her clients, Mary just nodded.

"I'm so glad I have you!" Mary told her. Rose laughed. She kept surprising her and it was amazing. She knew that the woman had to be the enemy, but she played her part well.

"Of course I'm there for you. Okay, we spoke about this before, but I'm just going to repeat it. They have all sorts of proof that you really have bad intentions. They think that you, Donald and Terra have set up the Knights of Walpuris to complete the tasks of your ancestors. The only thing we need to proof here is that you're like this Muggle thing in politics: a political party. You aren't dangerous, but just telling the people another opinion," Rose said and Mary nodded. Mary was smart and didn't waste her time on dumb questions, but she did know how to react and talk without looking suspicious.

"From the country I come from, this is really normal. Would that be okay to say?" Mary asked. Rose sat down and smiled. Thinking before answering, she took her time.

"I guess, but I wouldn't use that as your main argument. In that case they would tell you to stop your party and continue it in your own country," Rose said. Mary stepped nervous from toe to toe. Nervous, because the big clock in their preparing room told them it was time. She was nervous, like everyone was who stood there. Nervous, but not afraid.

"Okay, so I don't have to worry?" Mary asked, looking a bit relieved.

"No, you don't. I'll fix this," Rose answered. Mary left the room satisfied and Rose just groaned softly. Doing her research and while talking to Mary, Rose had discovered that Mary did had bad intentions. Donald and Terra were with Mary because she was a strong leader. She knew exactly what to say to a group when they were skeptical. This kind of tricks didn't work in a courtroom, of course, which was why Rose was needed. The courtroom wasn't about doing what's right, but more about who's going to win. The one who wins, will be seen as a better lawyer.

"Rose Weasley, it's your time for the truth serum," the judge said and Rose nodded.

"Rose Weasley, do you promise us to tell the truth and nothing other than the truth during this case?" was the question she'd to answer after taking the sip of truth serum.

"I promise to tell the truth and nothing other than the truth during this case," Rose answered and she went on. From her birth she'd been learned _Occlumency_ and she did games with her cousins while using truth serum that it had been like lemonade to her. She knew how to avoid the thoughts that would tell them she wouldn't tell the truth. As long as she saw it as _her_ truth, the serum wouldn't actually work. All lies. Everything was just one big lie.

:: :: ::

"Rose Weasley, did you speak the truth and nothing other than the truth during this case?" she was asked again after the case was over.

"I did speak the truth and nothing other than the truth during this case," Rose answered. The case had been won - or better _this _case had been won, there would be more cases soon. Mary couldn't be happier, but had been calm. Being really happy now, would only reveal her true identity. She had to be relieved, no more than that. The case hadn't been the worst part. It had been fun to become so angry, but to use the right arguments. To tell the truth and to refute every argument the counterpart claimed to be true. Innocent. The Knights of Walpuris had been innocent and there had begun the trickiest part. People outside were shouting her name. Cursing it. Crushing it. Aurors everywhere jumped nearby to cover her. The lights in Scorpius's eyes had finally begun to shine, because he'd finally an exiting job to do. Albus was somewhere behind her, next to Frank and some other Aurors from their department plus her father and uncle Harry.

"THE KNIGHTS OF WALPURIS ESCAPED AZKABAN, THEIR LAWYER ROSE WEASLEY WILL PAY FOR THIS!"

They all shouted it. They all wrote it down everywhere near the streets and roads. They even had banners. It had never been this heavy. She'd gotten death treats in her mailbox and later on in the papers. Loads of angry letters barraged Rose's mailbox, some that gave her nightmares or kept her up at night feeling afraid for her safety. She was secretly terrified, but no one really knew that. Lily had probably censored most death treats, but even after she left, the death treats didn't fill every page. Everything had made his way downwards as the time went on. The death treats stopped and people didn't intrude their opinion in the _Daily Prophet_ anymore. Even though that happened, her uncle had tightened the security, which had been why Scorpius needed to move in. It was today that Rose realized how much she needed a guard like Scorpius. Strong, trustworthy and strict, but also calm, funny and kind. She really needed him. Even though Albus, her uncle and her father were helping to save her life too now, she knew that family was too close to her to really protect her that good. Scorpius was the ideal bodyguard and perhaps she finally had to act like she approved of him.

:: :: ::

It was heavy. Really heavy. People were shouting, but still not using their magic. It was weird that they only blamed Rose. There were more people to blame. How about the judge who certified them innocent? How about him or the other Aurors? Scorpius had done his research on the Knights of Walpuris, as this was his project too. The other Aurors did all the field duties and he needed to do the paperwork. Rose was his field duty; Auror Potter Senior had told him. It was boring to do all the paperwork, but on the other hand, it was quite handy now. He knew that the Knights of Walpuris weren't as innocent as the judge certified them. He knew that the judge and Rose both knew they weren't innocent. Mary Dolohov was the one who made them not innocent. Her betas, Donald and Terra, were like Rose had described the Knights. As her bodyguard, he had been allowed to be there in the courtyard. It had startled him. Rose wasn't lying and manipulating, although he knew she thought she was. Rose was speaking the truth, in her way of seeing the truth, because it was her job. Rose was doing her job and just because she said these things didn't mean that she actually meant it, but of course, the people would never believe that it would be better now for Mary to make this step. For everyone, this was strategically the best step to take. Thereby, neither the judge nor anyone else ever questioned Mary alone. It was always their whole group and what Rose said about the group, wasn't a lie. So technically, Rose didn't lie. But that was only technically. Scorpius didn't want to know what Rose thought of herself. She probably didn't do anything to make herself feel better. Looking at her, he saw her fear. The fear only he could see. The people outside only saw a bitter smile. A smirk, perhaps.

"Are you alright?" Scorpius asked her. He didn't care anymore if he looked worried. Since a few days he'd been harder on her. More professional. It was mostly because he couldn't handle the way he felt about her. She was so amazing and so complicated and for Scorpius, this was too much to handle right now. He had a job to do, not a woman to fall in love with!

"Well, it's not like the whole magical world wants to kill me, isn't it?" Rose tried to joke. Scorpius rolled his eyes and Rose just sighted. It was good to hear she still - at least attempt to - joke, even though the attempt was pretty bad.

"It's still a hundred meters before we can completely hide you and go to your house. Try to keep up the positive attitude," he said and he walked away from her.

"How is she doing?" Albus asked him. Scorpius looked at him for a second and then answered.

"She's terrified, I guess, but never wants to admit that," he said, but somehow he had to smile because of what he'd said. Rose never failed to be Rose.

"What? What's wrong?" Albus asked, when he saw Scorpius smiling.

"Don't you see it? She's getting dead threats and is probably in the most dangerous situation she ever been, but she's still stubborn, acting like everything is okay!" Scorpius laughed. Wow, she really was amazing.

"Mate, you're acting weird," Albus answered. He looked at Scorpius and patted him on the back.

"Are you finally admitting that you like her?" Albus whispered in Scorpius's ear. Scorpius gave Albus a weird look and turned around when he heard the first spells. They were almost there. Almost at the place Rose would be safe.

"_CONFRINGO!_" shouted someone out of nowhere. There was a fire and it became bigger and bigger. It spread through the whole Ministry. People shouted and screamed, yelled and cried.

"_EXPULSO!_" shouted someone else, from the same side. The walls blew up and people were thrown away by the power of the explosion.

"_AGUAMENTI MAXIMA_!" shouted Auror Potter senior. The explosions slowly calmed down. The fire died. It was then that everything started. Everyone began to curse towards Rose. People weren't even close to Rose, so their curses cursed someone of their own. It didn't even matter to them. They just screamed and if they hit someone near Rose, it was good enough. Nothing stopped them from their goal.

"C'mon Rose, we need to go. NOW!" Scorpius said to Rose. She was paralyzed. He lifted her over his shoulder and run away with her as quickly as possible. She needed space. Space from all those people. Space from the whole situation. She needed to be home again. To be feel loved and accepted. Scorpius only didn't know how to do so, because surely he wasn't the right person to give her that.

:: :: ::

Being at home for a few hours didn't change anything on the situation with Rose. Rose was still paralyzed and trying to process what was happening — or actually, what happened. She was sitting on the bench where Scorpius had laid her down on hours ago. Her eyes were open, tears had dried up on her cheeks. She didn't smile. She didn't cry. She didn't do anything. She was only...quiet.

"Rose, talk to me," Scorpius said, for what seemed like the millionth time. She didn't react on his voice when he talked, or the arms with which he had hold her when she cried.

"Rose...please," Scorpius begged. She was really desperate and he was the only person who could take care of her right know. Why wasn't there someone else here right now? Someone who could help her? One of her friends?

"I know our relationship isn't...the best in the world, but you should talk about it. It isn't right to just...shut everyone out. I'm here...don't terrorize yourself because you hold a grudge against me," he tried. Finally she looked up. Her shiny, crying eyes looked straight at him.

"This is all my fault," she managed to say. The tears streamed again on her cheeks and he hold her.

"This isn't your fault," he answered, as a way to appease her.

"It is, don't you get it? I've _lied_, but for what? There will be a war again and it is my fault! I defended them, while I discovered during my research that they are far from innocent. I should've let them lock them up in Azkaban. No, not everyone. Mary. I should've let them lock Mary up in Azkaban. Everyone knows she isn't innocent. They will never forgive me. I'm the daughter of two war heroes and look where I am. What I'm doing! I thought it was a bit rebellious. I wanted to let people know I'm not who my parents are, but this is...this is not what I meant." It seemed like she trusted him, Scorpius thought. By saying all of this, she was so honest and true to what she felt, Scorpius hoped she wouldn't regret later on saying this to him. Maybe their relationship was finally getting better.

"It's not your fault. I know that Mary isn't innocent and so does the judge. You did your job well. If Mary would be locked up in Azkaban, there would be a hundred other Mary's taking the lead, and that would be even worse. This Mary trusts you and knows she can work with you, because you will cover her. You're doing your job the way you need to do!" Scorpius explained, but Rose wouldn't calm down.

"And all those people? All those people hate me now, what is heroic about that?" Rose said. She sobbed a bit and hiccupped.

"They will forgive you when they know why you did it. You're not the bad guy, Rose," Scorpius answered. Rose smiled, but didn't say anything more. She got comfortable in his hold. Slowly, they both got tired.

"You're not that bad, Malfoy," Rose said, when they were almost asleep. Scorpius grinned lazily.

"You're not that bad yourself, Weasley,"


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**A/N**: OKAY so I have no excuse to be this late with a chapter, really. I could explain everything, but I wouldn't call it a "good excuse" (try being busy, senior prom and school trip to Prague, but still…). I'm so sorry and I hope I didn't ruin your moods to enjoy this story – xo WICELA

* * *

Lily was glad to be home again. It was a small apartment, which she'd left for half a year. Small, but never to small for Lily, although she perhaps had to rethink that, now she was going to be a mum. A mum. She was going to be a mum. Lily stroked her hand on her belly. It had been so unrealistic when she realized she was pregnant, but there had always been a reason to deny the whole thing. She could've gone mad or she wasn't thinking straight after her break-up with Lorcan. She even had a reason to explain why her belly was growing – chocolate was always her favorite when she was sad. But now she had no choice. Hearing the doctors confirming her pregnancy made her more scared than ever. She knew she had to talk to her parents and to Hugo, Albus and Rose. Her friends perhaps and last but not totally least, Lorcan. People were asking her if Lorcan was the dad. They assumed that she could've enjoyed the single life and didn't watch out. People assumed everything. Her boss assumed also a lot of things. Loads of letters were lying on her kitchen table. All written in her boss's terrible handwriting, telling her that she couldn't just "take off" like she did. Well, that wasn't something she hadn't realized already. The last letter was a Howler and as soon as Lily opened it, Pansy Parkinson started to scream.

_"__LILY POTTER! YOU ARE HEREBY FIRED; I WILL TALK ABOUT THIS WITH THE MINISTRY AND DON'T THINK YOUR RICH DADDY CAN HELP YOU OUT OF THIS. IF I SEE YOUR FACE EVER AGAIN I WILL PERSONALLY ENSURE IT WILL BE THE LAST TIME I'LL EVER SEE YOU!"_

Lily had never really stopped working. She had done a lot of research for her department in the place where she had been living. Luckily, her boss had still accepted her pieces. Unfortunately, her boss's revenge was gossip columns that weren't really going the way she'd wanted them. Lily tucked the letters away and sat down on her couch for a while. Quietly she enjoyed being back again. Seeing her friends and family and knowing that they'd missed her and wouldn't judge her. Seeing Lorcan again had been the only thing she couldn't handle really well. It had been a torture for her to see him. Even though he'd kissed her, she knew it could've meant nothing. They always had this kind of…thing that bonded them. That thing had kept her from breaking up with him, because she loved him too much. Leaving him had broken her, but it had been the right thing too, because their bonding thing was gone. She had told herself that she didn't need to get back together with Lorcan. She could easily see him with another girl, because it didn't matter anymore. She was taking life in her own hands and not sharing it with him, but it all didn't matter anymore. That kiss had discarded everything. She was ready to throw everything away, just for him. Now she was home again. In her own house again. Alone. She immediately realized how less time she'd been spending in her house. Lorcan's house had been bigger and she almost lived there, even though she loved her own place. Her own space reminded her of what her life – her life that included her friends and family – had been when she was alone. She had never been single before she ran away and perhaps it was good to be single for a while, even though Lorcan was very close. She had been away for half a year; it was possible he had a girlfriend or that he didn't want to see her again – certainly after their kiss. She needed distance from him and if that would mean she would see him with another girl, than that would happen. Perhaps it was better for everyone to not know who the real father of her child was. Perhaps she would be able to ignore it too.

:: :: ::

It was unexpectedly easy for Lily to fit in her old life again. When she talked to her boss, she mumbled something like being on her period – or the lack of being on her period – when she wrote that letter. She started weekly diners with her parents on Friday and when her brothers heard of it, they came by when they could make it. For Albus it meant that he actually came by, for James it meant he appreciated the offer, but was too busy to care. Even though James really was busy, they'd other cousins with Quidditch jobs and they weren't as half as busy as he was. His teammates mostly told her that girls were part of his job. Lily wasn't really disappointed in James. He had always been this way and it made it much more special when he did come. He wasn't the person you wanted to be with every day – she had experience and it didn't really end well. James and Albus had always been like water and fire. Lily hopped from one to the other; it really depended on her mood. James was always there to party and Albus was more for the midnight conversations about the deep serious stuff. Lily loved them no matter what and she knew that, even though they had their own things, they would always care. Her parents cared too and they were glad when Lily suddenly stopped by. When she came the week after and the week after that again, the tradition was started. Saturday evening was the evening that Lily went to the pub with Hugo. It had been an old tradition and they picked it up as soon as Lily was back. Even though Lily couldn't drink any alcoholic drinks, she still partied. Most times Hugo was kind enough to not drink either – except for those three times Lily became his sober friend. But, Lily forgave him, because he had a fair enough reason to do so. Being dumped and fired in the same week had been kind of a bummer. The only cousin that Lily was close to and didn't really saw often was Rose. Of course there were reasons for it – she had been closer to her house than ever since the judge spoke. Everywhere Lily heard people speak about her and it really took everything to not defend Rose. She knew Rose was going to a rough time. Getting dead threats and having a bodyguard because of it wasn't nothing. Thereby was the tension between her and Scorpius could even a stranger notice. There were so many things happening between the two of them that Lily didn't know and Rose probably wasn't aware of. Catching up with her was difficult when the subject of their conversation walked in every second. Rose's face turned red every time she caught him looking at her. The more awkward the situation became, the more her blush spread. Scorpius's had seen that too and his eyes flickered. Lily rolled her eyes, as she knew he was probably thinking about where that blush was heading. They liked each other. Hell, they were probably head over heels already, but they were both afraid to admit it. Seeing their budding bloom for love was something she'd missed. She'd missed teasing them, because even though Rose made a habit of denying it, they were seeing much of each other even when Scorpius wasn't her bodyguard. They just needed a little push and Lily was planning on giving them that when the time was right.

:: :: ::

It was Friday evening and Albus was sitting next to his sister on the couch. His father just told them how Rose was doing and his mother made them drinks. When she came back and shared them, she shook her head.

"Albus, are you okay?" she asked worried. She sat down next to him on the couch and looked him deep in the eye.

"Euhm, no, it's nothing, just a bit tired," he answered quickly. He looked away and saw Lily staring at him with her eyes wide open. She knew what was happening. She knew what was wrong.

"I'm sorry Al, but I can't give you any more time off or another kind of job, because we need you right now," his father told him. Albus nodded. Another job was the least thing he wanted. He just wanted to rest.

"Harry! Look at him, this isn't healthy!" his mother defended him. He tried to smile, to not show he was suffering, but his mother always saw the true him.

"I know you're busy and everything, but this isn't alright!"

"It's good for him to work with this kind of situations. It wasn't always easy for me when I started working and so it won't be for Al, but he shouldn't give up!" His father and mother went on and on about whether it was healthy enough to have a job right now and Albus couldn't hold it in anymore.

"I'M GAY, OKAY?" he shouted and everyone was silent. After a minute of dodging the eyes, Lily hugged him.

"I'm proud of you," she whispered in his ear. When he looked up, his mother was staring at him with tears in her eyes.

"It's okay, darling, it's okay!" she told him and she smiled. Then came the most confronting person. He didn't even want to look at his father, but then he did. His father smiled at him too and walked towards him.

"You know, when you were younger, you were afraid we would all hate you if you would end up in Slytherin, but we didn't. We love you, just the way you are and not a version you think we want you to be. We want you to be happy, Albus, and if you're happier this way, we accept that." Albus didn't expect that. He got tears in his eyes and looked at his father.

"Do you mean that?" he asked him and his father nodded.

"Of course I do. We all do," he answered.

"But Al, what's wrong then?" his mother asked.

"It's okay, just tell us," she said and he nodded. He looked at his family and smiled, but thinking about Eric was a killing thought.

"Euhm…Eric and I had a relationship for quite a long time and…well…he didn't want to hide anymore and I wasn't ready to tell you everything. It's so…final when you tell everyone about it. You suddenly have to deal with everyone staring at you, because you're gay or because you're the gay son of the Chosen One. It's just…everything was perfect when we were together and I didn't want to share that and now, he broke up with me, because I wasn't ready yet and…and I felt like…like nothing. Empty." There were several remarks when he mentioned Eric's name, but after that, everyone was perfectly silent. No one who said something like 'I KNEW IT!' or 'you LIVED with that guy!'

"I think I can understand both perspectives. As I understand, you two were together even when you lived together, right?" Albus nodded.

"I understand why he didn't want to hide anymore, but I also understand why you wasn't ready. I really want to say that he should've had the patience to wait for you to be ready, but I don't think that's fair, I mean: who knows when you would come out? It's not fair to pressure you, but it is totally understandable." His mother stroked his hair like when he was younger, but he didn't say anything about it. He wanted to be a little boy again. That little boy had been as afraid of failing as he was now. Then, he was afraid to end up in Slytherin, now he was afraid to not fit in. Being unique in his world wasn't something to be proud of. In a normal family, people would judge you a bit, but accept you later, but he wasn't part of a normal family. His father was the Chosen One and even though he didn't see himself as a special person, the rest of the world did saw him as one.

"Look Al, we will all be there when the news hit the papers. We will all support you. Lily and I will see what we can do about the papers and the rumors – Pansy Parkinson doesn't have all the power she thinks she has – and everyone else who's ready to judge you, is just some jealous person who isn't as brave as you. Al, never forget: you never were a Gryffindor at Hogwarts, but you have Gryffindor trades in you. You're brave, Al, really brave," his mother said and she hugged him tight.

"We're so proud of you, son," his father said and they smiled.

"You should talk to Eric someday, though," Lily answered laughingly and Albus groaned.

"Not if you're present."

:: :: ::

As the time went past, Helga and Frank slowly slipped into a rhythm. Eating breakfast together, going to work, being home late and so tired that a goodnight kiss had to do. Even in the weekends they were both very busy. Helga was on her way to become a real Healer and spent more time with Kelsey than they did when they lived together. They had met when they started with the Healer program and never stopped liking each other. Kelsey was completely infiltrated in their circle of friends and there were those evenings when Kelsey and Rose were both so drunk, because they were too single to stay sober. It was nice to spent so much time with Kelsey now Rose was locked into her own house. She and Frank still visited her every Monday evening – sometimes Kelsey joined, if only to flirt with Scorpius. But then there were the evenings when they both weren't working and just sitting there, staring at the TV – a muggle thing that Rose really loved. The "honeymoon"-time was over and now there was just this big I-take-you-for-granted-situation. Instead of flirting with each other, it was like "Do you want to have sex?" and the other person said "yes" and then they would walk to the bedroom and have sex. Nothing romantic.

"Frank?" she said. It was a TV evening again and she really hated it.

"Hmm?" he answered, while looking in some kind of weird magazine. Helga threw the magazine out of his hands and stared at him.

"Hey! I was reading that!" Frank exclaimed. He wasn't really angry, but just…surprised.

"I think we need to get out of our rhythm," she said and she saw the surprise on his face growing.

"Why? What's wrong with it?" he answered.

"Frank, I want to go out with you, to see the world, to do special things. We're becoming two old persons already and it's not right. We're getting boring!" she said. She didn't want to look at him and stared thereby at their newish bank.

"We're not getting boring, Helga, we're just both very busy with work! Why don't we plan a vacation or something?" he suggested.

"But we don't have any money! We just bought a house!" she said. Her voice skipped a bit and Frank raised his eyebrow.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. Worriedly, he pulled her towards him.

"You look a bit pale?" he added and seconds after that, she fought her way out of his grip.

"Toilet! Toilet!" she screamed and Frank run after her.

"Shit, not again!" she muttered when she'd cleaned herself up.

"Not again? How many times have you thrown up lately?" Frank asked and she smiled without meaning it.

"Too often. I think I'm getting sick or something and I'm sorry, I think it's why I got mad at you," she said. He hugged her and gave her a kiss.

"It's not a problem, but what _is_ a problem, is that you're sick, so you're going to a Healer, or you're staying home for a bit," he said firmly.

"Is it alright if I go to Healer Jordan?" she grinned, but he shook his head.

"No, Healer Jordan is too sick to work," he answered and she grinned.

"O well, okay then," she answered.

"But, it's smelling in here, so let's go to some place where no one puked," he grinned, lifting her and carrying her to the bedroom.

"Getting bored, already?" he whispered in her ear. Helga laughed and kissed him.

"Never."

:: :: ::

Rose loved her friends. Rose loved that her friends got new friends and introduced them to her. Rose loved their new friends. But Rose hated Kelsey. For many years Kelsey and Rose got along perfectly fine. They were funny, they were laughing and they shared the most amazing secrets. Still, that last Monday when Kelsey came along with Frank and Helga, Rose started to hate her. She was so full of herself. So many times flirting with Scorpius and _he reacted_. Not that she cared that he reacted, but still, if they would become a couple, they would have sex in _her house_ and that was not what she wanted. The way Kelsey was throwing herself into him was pathetic. Almost like she was hopeless and thought that Scorpius would be perfect new boyfriend material. Everybody knew that he wasn't good boyfriend material. He was just a player and he had a reputation. Not that she cared, but they weren't even good together. She liked so many other things than him, like…like…having a _steady_ boyfriend instead of having a one-night-stand or the-fling-of-the-week. No, they definitely weren't good together. She hated it when he asked her something about Kelsey. She hated it when he talked about her. She hated it when he noticed her. She wasn't jealous or something, of course she wasn't, but the thought of him having something with Kelsey, made her want to throw up. Scorpius would only ruin Kelsey and she didn't want that for her friend. Yes, that certainly had to be it. So she hated Scorpius instead. But…he had been nice to her. They had become friends. Sort of friends. He had comforted her when she had felt like nothing. He had been a good friend. Was that his job or was it just him? Why did he confuse her so much?


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.  
**Updated**: May 4 (2016)

* * *

"So Kels, what did you do today? I highly doubt it will be even a tad more eventful than my day?" Scorpius asked, while he put his arm around Kelsey. She laughed and leaned against him. Rose had gone to bed already and the rest of the friends who had visited were long gone. He'd felt lonely after the hearing. Rose had been really quiet and they hadn't talked much. Like he was used to, Scorpius put his loneliness in the game he loved so much; a drink and a girl never bored him before. So there he was, sitting on Rose's couch with a girl who was almost throwing herself at him. It hadn't even been much of a game and it made him laugh. That kind of girls were so pathetic.

"Actually," Kelsey begun cheerful, "I saved a kid's life today." Scorpius tried to be the kind boyfriend that was impressed and admired her, but he wasn't. He knew this girl now for a few weeks and she didn't do those kind of things, so he was waiting for the moment she told him it wasn't actually her save - which she did as soon as he sort of began to fall asleep.

"You're a hero," he whispered in her ear and she laughed again. His cheek touched hers and she stopped breathing for a second.

"Don't kill yourself, you might need your breath," he said and yet again, she laughed.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine as long as I'm with you," she whispered back. It was cheesy and desperate, but it had to do. So he kissed her and she kissed him back. It wasn't passionate or fiercely. It was more desperate than the cheesy pickup-line she'd used, plus it was desperately sentimental. She'd been like this the whole time they were together. Maybe they just needed time so he could get used to it. Maybe he should try to make it work. He'd been drunk, too drunk, every time he'd been with her. Kelsey wasn't the right target for that kind of fun. She actually liked him more than only for the looks and the cheesy talks and he was confused. Last time he'd done a reality check, he'd found himself fallen in love with Rose Weasley. The only question that remained was: was she worth waiting for? She was like a dead end. She'd turned him down a million times. Part of time he'd been joking, the other part he hadn't, even though he wasn't even aware that there was another option than joking about it. There was one time that Rose actually didn't turn him down and he'd seen how that ended. They opened up to one another, but only to fight about it some hours later. Would it every time go like that? Scorpius knew that acted like someone who didn't care that much and partly, he really didn't care, but Rose had somehow managed to get a grip on things and let him care. She made him care about what he was wearing or how he was acting around her. Caring about even the smallest of things and it was crazy. On the other hand, she also hurt him a lot with every time she ignored him or gossiped about him or turned him down again. How many times of turning him down was he going to tolerate? How many times getting hurt was going to be too much? Kelsey had been a lot easier and a lot less complicated. She liked him, she admitted it and she acted like it. She wanted him in more than only a sexual kind of way. And maybe, she was starting to fall for him. He'd been teasing her - or, as she saw it: flirting with her. It didn't feel wrong, it actually felt more like teasing a friend to him, but it didn't matter. Perhaps it was for the best if he let his complicated feelings for Rose fly away and be more of a boyfriend to Kelsey. That girl deserved it too.

:: :: ::

"So...you and Kelsey, hm?" It had been the first in over a week that Rose talked to him - that, if you'd say four words and a scratching throat counts as talking. Still, Scorpius wasn't surprised she wanted to talk to him, as she caught them an hour ago in the kitchen and let just add for the love of Merlin that they weren't naked. Not fully. Yet.

"Yeah, me and Kelsey, hm," Scorpius decided to answer. The same amount of words in the same kind of voice, typically something that would irritate her. He could read on her face what she was dying to ask, but didn't, because it was Rose. He also knew that she would be way comfortable if he just told her what she wanted to hear, but this time, he wouldn't be that easy. He and Kelsey were going strong and Rose just had to be clear about every little thing she said. He wasn't going to be distracted. She wasn't even that fair - as Kelsey had pointed out a few days ago. Even though the girls were sort of friends, Kelsey didn't like the way Rose had rules for everything. Rose always thought she could make up all the rules and be the one in charge, while actually she's the one being locked up for safety reasons. Scorpius didn't even see his parents that often - not that he really hated that, but it wasn't about that. Because of Rose, Scorpius lost his freedom and now Kelsey lost hers almost too. When Kelsey talked to him about that, Scorpius began to realize how much Kelsey had talked about their relationship to other people. In this case, Kelsey could be in so much danger, because she was linked to Scorpius and indirectly linked to Rose. So Scorpius finally did the right thing and didn't involve himself further than he already was, with Rose. He wasn't going to finish her unspoken sentences in his head, he wasn't to know what she thinking and he certainly wasn't going to let her in any further.

"I mean, it wasn't like I didn't expect it - I really did expect it. Did you saw Kelsey? She was eying you since, I don't know, since she knows you? Pa-the-tic. I don't understand her, but still, Kelsey is my friend, Malfoy. You got to treat her like a princess, or even more. If it comes to my ears that you broke her, I will break you too and I'll do it with everything I can, it will be my pleasure. Just so you know," Rose answered. It wasn't like her, how she reacted. She started rambling weird words with all kinds of emotions and when she'd fixated on one emotion, it had been anger. She would deny, Scorpius realized, but he actually did know her best nowadays. Even though he wouldn't let her more into his life, he did know and remember everything she'd said before to know she was acting strange. Suddenly so interested in all the best for Kelsey while she'd been given the girl a bit of terror herself. Of course Kelsey had noticed it, but his genius explanation had been something like 'Rose is going through a rough time,' which, by all means, wasn't exactly a lie.

"Oh, I'll be counting on it," Scorpius answered without a flinch. He wasn't actually looking forward to the moment it would happen. Or maybe he was. Maybe it would be a big moment where Rose would unexpectedly declare her love for him - no, he wasn't that desperate. He could see it was bothering her. That Kelsey was bothering her, but still, he couldn't exactly get it why she was so bothered. She wasn't so afraid for her friend, but what was it? Scorpius decided to let it go. Rose had her own world and her own chance. She didn't take it, so it was over. Easy as that. He needed to let her go. He needed to stop thinking about what she was thinking. Rose wasn't his problem anymore, Kelsey was. Kelsey trusted him. Kelsey knew that they could be together and he could do his job, professionally.

"Look, Rose, I got to get back to work. Just scream when you need me, okay?"

:: :: ::

Rose didn't like it. She absolutely didn't like it. She didn't like Kelsey, she didn't like Scorpius and she didn't like the 'new Scorpius' he was becoming and that everyone liked it. Some people gave her a bit of an odd eye when Scorpius and Kelsey became official, but most of them just moved on and found it all amazing. They didn't even know each other for a very long time and still everyone was sure this would be the girl for Scorpius. Because Scorpius Malfoy was the great hero who protected their little cousin slash niece and now he had finally a steady girlfriend and it was spectacular. Of course it would be unfair to say to him that he couldn't date. It wasn't in his files nor in his job description, so she couldn't possibly make it up. Even though she wanted to. Even though she was desperate to. She had a few ways she could stop it all, but she knew her uncle Harry; he was a sucker for love.

But what really made her feel that she would go so far? Why was she the pathetic one, instead of Kelsey, who she always called the pathetic one? Not in her face of course, but in her head only. After a rough start, she and Kelsey made it up and were friends again. Friends, who shared boyfriend stories with each other and where Rose always heard more than she wanted to. She needed to stop. To stop thinking she was attached to a man like Malfoy. He was just the same womanizer he'd always been. He was just the same bully. She hated him, but she had to stay professional. The weird acts of friendship were over. The weird one-night-stand-on-new-years-eve act was over. Everything they had was over. They were just to strangers who had to work with each other and secretly Rose hoped that Albus would come to the rescue. Now he and Eric were steady again after Al's outburst, he was perhaps happy enough to help a cousin-in-need. Because she needed him. Badly.

"Rose are you okay?" Lily asked. Scorpius was just two rooms further and able to hear every single word they said. It didn't mind which charm they chose for secretly talking, Rose wasn't allowed to use any of them. If there would come someone to kill her, Scorpius would be too late and Rose would be too dead. So Rose couldn't cry her heart out and tell her cousin what really had been breaking her, because he would hear it, and Rose still had some kind of dignity left.

"Yeah, just...you know, death treats," she answered. Lily hugged her tight.

"Did you open the Howlers?" she asked.

"Hadn't really choice in that matter, had I?" Rose answered. The Howlers were worse than anything, but still better than the feeling in her heart. It was silly. It was really silly. To cry or to feel something like this for such a dumbass guy who didn't even _want_ her. But it had been love. It still was. And that was why it hurt so much. Love. The Howlers had kind of the same affect as alcohol. It takes mind of the things that hurt, but it also makes you feel lonelier than ever. Like no one loves you.

"What do they say?" Lily tried. She tried to get it. To feel it. Of course, the girl had been through hell herself — she had been in love, too. But still, people ought to think their pain is the worst and Rose was no exception.

"That they hate me. That I'm pure evil. That they don't understand why I'm doing this — surely not the money. That I'm only seeking for more attention. That I'm making the Knights of Walpurgis stronger. That..." Rose summed up.

"Yeah, I think I get it. They hate you. But Rose, please don't think about it. Do you remember when we were kids? Al was already a few years best friends with Scorpius and I was like twelve years old and the plan was to go to the concert together. You remember? Al, Scorpius and I would go to a concert together and then Al got sick, so I asked you to come along and the press noticed it. You thought it was an absolute bummer and that they came to destroy our evening while I was just showing them my outfit and not caring that you just wanted to go. So I took Scorpius by the hand to convince you that we _had_ to go to the concert and not to go home already and there are a lot of photos made of that moment. Weeks later there were still remarks in the paper about it and everyone thought I was dating Scorpius. And at home, my father just said to me: "Lil, you seem to have a boyfriend," and my mother said: "Oh no, according to this article, the two of you just broke up," and than Al picked up a magazine and said: "Well, in here it says that your relationship has been given the number six out of ten, so it won't last very long, I suppose," and James was there and said: "Just be safe, sis," and then everyone laughed," Lily said. Rose laughed a bit and turned to her cousin.

"But why are you telling me this?" she asked.

"Well, just to explain to you that whatever the papers or other people think of you, there will always be your family to love you no matter what happens and we do this for free. We love you, Rose," she smiled and Rose smiled back.

"Thank you, Lils, I needed that. With talks like that you're going to be a great mum someday," Rose said. Lily laughed.

"Someday real soon," she added, while still laughing.

:: :: ::

"You're pregnant," were the words the Healer said.

"What?" Helga answered. She didn't understand. She...it...no. No. No!

"I'm not pregnant," she said. Even though her Healer was leaving her room, she didn't want him to do so.

"Yes you are, Helga, and congratulations," he said.

"Don't 'Helga' me, I'm not pregnant. Not possible! I'm a Healer, too, you know. I know when I'm pregnant and I know that I'm not pregnant!" she answered. This couldn't be true. It better wasn't.

"Helga, please remain calm, you've got nothing to worry about. You and your baby are completely healthy and everything will be alright!" he said, but instead of calming her down, she was becoming furious. The use of the word 'baby' didn't make it any less calm.

"Nothing to worry about? What do think about money, huh? I just moved, I've got a pretty expensive house, so I can't pay it. Besides: I'm not married. I know this is kinda old-fashioned, but my parents will hate me." Helga sat down on her chair.

"Helga, I can't do anything to you to help you. I can't make you un-pregnant. You should tell your boyfriend and you know there are loads of therepy..."

"Look Thomas, normally I give these chats myself to the patients so I know what I can do or not do. Please, just...Merlin...pregnant. What will Frank say?"

:: :: ::

"Pregnant? Are you sure?" Helga couldn't really recall if Frank was happy or not to hear this.

"Euhm, quite sure yeah," she answered a bit shy. Looking towards the ground, she hoped that he wouldn't be angry or something. It wasn't like Frank to be angry, but still. She hoped him to at least like the idea of having a mini-Frank-and-Helga walking around them, but still, she didn't know what to do.

"Helga, that's fantastic!" Frank exclaimed. She looked up and saw the joy in his eyes.

"Really?"

"Yeah, of course it is, why wouldn't it?"

"Because...the money and...and...everything?"

"Helga, everything that happens to us is going in flash-forward. There is no minute that we get boring, like you seemed to think earlier. But there is nothing I would do to stop that. Flash-forward suits us. It's nice. We'll figure this out," Frank explained. Helga hugged him.

"I really hoped you would like it," she said. Tears fell down of her cheeks. The whole day she had been worrying about what being pregnant would be like and what kind of negative things it would cause, but now, with Frank, she totally saw the point. They were having a baby. A kid. It would be fantastic.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.  
**Updated**: May 4 (2016)

* * *

"Cedric, I need your advice, I'm becoming mad!" Eric said. He was pacing and he felt all kinds of emotions through his whole body.

"Eric, I already gave you all sorts of advice. You need to calm down. You need to relax!" Cedric answered. He forced Eric into a chair, but instead of pacing, he shivered like an addict.

"Advice? You call that advice? Waiting for him to come to me? I HAVE WAITED SO LONG, CEDRIC!" Eric screamed. Tears fell of his cheeks, but he ignored it.

"THEN MOVE ON!" Cedric reacted. "Move on and act like it. If you're tired of waiting, it's not weird that you move on."

"It's not that simple," Eric murmured. He crawled back into his chair and thought about it. It really wasn't that simple.

"And why not?" Cedric asked. He was sitting on his couch, like he had been sitting the whole time since Eric had arrived. In the beginning, Eric had been happy, telling him that his new job was great and everything. They'd laughed and joked around. Tears of joy were falling of their cheeks, until the tears of joy changed into tears of sadness and loss. Eric didn't want to cry. He never really cried in public. Some of his family thought he wasn't manly enough and he didn't want to give them another reason for hating him.

"Because it's Albus we're talking about," Eric answered. At that exact moment, someone knocked on the door. Eric knew. Eric knew who was knocking on the door. From the first knock he could feel it. Cedric stood up to open the door and Eric heard his voice again. The voice, which allowed him to say everything. Eric wasn't interested in the chitchat he and Cedric had. He just waited, crawled back into his chair.

"I'll leave you two to it, then," Cedric said and he walked away. Eric could feel, could sense Albus's presence.

"I'm not going to say that I'm sorry," Albus began. He sat down on the bench and looked at him.

"Good, me neither," Eric answered. Slowly, he crawled out of his chair so he wasn't as pathetic as he was a few minutes ago.

"Good," Albus repeated.

"I guess you told your parents then?" Eric asked, but he knew. The half-smile on his face told him that he felt way more comfortable about his sexuality than before. That he felt way more comfortable about himself.

"I did," Albus mumbled. "You know, when I thought about it, I really get it why you were mad at me. Why you were in such a dilemma. Were you going to tell me that I could take all the time or were you forcing me, because I needed a little push? I get it, okay? I really needed a little push, because otherwise, I was never going to tell them. Of course, it wasn't that hard and of course, everyone got really emotional and understanding. I could've known that, but I was afraid. And you knew it. I was afraid of myself and actually, I was afraid to commit. Admitting to my parents that I had been dating you for so long wasn't the worst problem. It was admitting it to myself. I have been living in a fairytale and I didn't take responsibility for how I acted. If you..." Albus stopped again. He didn't want to feel the loss again, but he didn't realize he wasn't alone in his loss. Eric had lost him. They both lost someone.

"I do," Eric simply answered. He knew Albus wasn't asking him to marry him. Albus was asking him something else. Something that should've been the beginning of everything all along, but it wasn't too late.

"You...do?" Albus asked. Typically Albus to feel so insecure, but Eric didn't mind.

"I do."

:: :: ::

Saying that he and Eric were fine was a bit quick, but it was going the right way. Albus discovered he had been lying under a stone and the next stop he made was the place where Rose lived. When Scorpius let him in, they sat down in Scorpius's room.

"You look different, mate, what happened?" Scorpius asked him. Albus smiled and looked down. It was still a bit awkward to tell him this kind of things.

"Eric and I made up," he answered, but only then realizing what his friend would make of that.

"You did, didn't you?" Scorpius grinned and a cocky smile appeared on his face.

"But you look also a bit different..." Albus concluded. His eyebrows raised and waited for Scorpius to fill in the dots.

"Ah, well, I may or may not have a girlfriend. A...steady one," Scorpius said laughingly, but when his laugh vanished, Albus knew that he was serious.

"So you and Rose...? Finally?" Albus asked.

"_What_? Me and...? Of course not. No it's Kelsey," Scorpius answered. He looked down and sighted.

"But I thought you liked her? And she-" Albus began.

"No. And I might have liked her once, but that's long over. I'm with Kelsey now," Scorpius interrupted him.

"I've never seen the two of you together," Albus said. He wanted to understand it, but he didn't.

"Look mate, it's very sweet of you to look out for me, but I'm fine. Kelsey and I are happy together and we have been for quite a while now. The fact you didn't see anything says more about you than about me, because you weren't there, you know?" Scorpius discussed. The weird thing was, Albus discovered, that he had been smiling a bit, but didn't truly smiled. This wouldn't be him if he'd been with someone he really liked. So even though Scorpius went down on his own ship, wouldn't mean he would. This didn't mean he wouldn't be supporting in his new relationship. Of course he would be supporting; Scorpius was his best friend.

"Sorry mate, I'm happy for you if you know what you're doing," Albus answered.

"I know what I'm doing," Scorpius said.

"So, I'm happy."

:: :: ::

But he totally didn't know what he was doing. He was still interested in the part where he interrupted Albus.

_But I thought you liked her? And she-_

What did he want to say? Scorpius felt his heartbeat rising when he thought about that she perhaps liked him back.

No. He wasn't able to think about that. He had a girlfriend! These weren't his playing years where he just could have sex with everyone he saw.

_But she'd been amazing._

He never had really forgotten about when they got together and every time he and Kelsey did something together, his head went straight to Rose. Talking to Albus made him realize that he was giving himself reasons why he was together with Kelsey. He wasn't convincing Albus, but he was convincing himself. Maybe this was better. Kelsey would be better. He knew Rose was hiding. She threw herself in her research and didn't want to talk to him again, but he didn't understand her. She was perfectly nice to everyone and didn't share any of her emotions anymore with anyone.

"It's probably just everything that's going on," Helga told him. She'd been nicer to him the more she'd come by and saw him. And since he was dating one of her friends, she perhaps had to act nice.

"You mean the death treats and everything?" Scorpius asked. Helga nodded.

"Perhaps it's better if you leave her alone," she said. Scorpius didn't understand this at first. How was it possible to leave her alone? He was her bodyguard! But then he realized it. He realized what Helga really meant.

_Alby,_

_I can't really talk about this, as I can't really talk in private, but we made a deal. I would take your job until you'd be ready to continue. Can you please do me favor after I did you one? Could we please switch jobs again so everything will be normal again?_

_S_

:: :: ::

"Hi Rose!" Albus's voice sounded way to excited in Rose's opinion.

"Al, what are you doing here?" Rose grunted. She was lying in her bed with her research on her knees. Not totally the perfect position to do her job, but it was better than going on with the day, realizing that her heart was an empty bowl of nothing.

"He didn't tell you?" Albus said surprised.

"He didn't tell me what?" Rose answered.

"That he's back to his job again – and me too," Albus answered. So he didn't tell her he didn't want to be her bodyguard anymore. He didn't tell her he wanted to leave.

"Well, good for you," Rose said. Was she surprised he did it? No. Was she disappointed? Totally.

"Rose? What's going on?" Albus asked.

"Nothing is going on other than this stupid assignment of mine," Rose said. She'd been saying that to everyone and discovered that people accepted this excuse very quickly.

"Rose! No one you don't trust is walking around the corner in three seconds. You can talk freely, okay?" Albus said. It was then, that Rose realized she'd missed him. He'd been Scorpius's best friend lately, but he was her friend too.

"I'm in love with him, okay? Now you know. I don't know for how long, but I do know that it's too late. He already has a girlfriend – and don't tell me that everything can break, because the both of them don't deserve that. He didn't even want to look at me for a while and then I knew what was going on. I've been avoiding him as much as he has been avoiding me, but this is going a bit too far, okay? He could've told me something!" Rose exclaimed. Albus sighted.

"Finally, you admit it," he smiled.

"Well, yeah, write a book about it, call the papers, I don't know! The thing I hate most about it is that I'm not able to do my work in the way I want to do. Every little stupid thing reminds me of him and I HATE IT! I wanted a normal life, just doing my stupid research, but knowing the end of the case will satisfy me. Instead of that I got locked up in my own house, because everyone hates me too much, because of the job that I do. I fall in love, more than I fell in love with my five-year-or-so boyfriend and this guy likes someone else. And everyone expects me to be 'never-crying-Rose', because nobody has ever seen me crying. Why am I the one who needs to be strong? I don't want to be strong! Not anymore," Rose said. She sighted and tried to catch her breath. Tears were slowly falling from her cheeks.

"Al, it hurts okay?" she said.

"I know, Rosie, I know," Albus answered.

"Come, let's visit some family," he suggested.

"But I need to work..." Rose protested.

"Like you're capable of working in this state," he exclaimed. Rose wanted to tell him she was stronger than that, but than realized that she wasn't. It was time. She wasn't weak. It was time for her to see that she could be more than this.

:: :: ::

"Mum, I totally don't need to go to the hospital! I've been six months pregnant without any hospital!" Lily exclaimed. Her mother, however, didn't want to hear it.

"Lily, please, that's more reason to go. You don't want your first child to end up like mine. I actually think James is like this, because I didn't stop working until I was sure I was pregnant. Which I knew after three months." Her mother didn't look too happy about it, but Lily was able to laugh.

"It certainly explains James's thing with Quidditch. What did dad say about this?" Lily answered.

"Well, you know him, he wasn't very happy that I had been flying with a baby for three months. Thereby he was shocked to hear I was pregnant, but realizing we already had sort-of-a-son, he was actually very happy," her mother grinned. She didn't tell her more, but Lily could fill in the gaps. Rose had actually told her something that _her_ mother had told her about her father. He had been terrified to be a father. War was for six, seven years and he wasn't over it. He had lost so many people and finally he got it all together. There were some people who died on the way and loads of people who died during the battle and even though he thought he had handled the deaths of others well, he didn't. Her father had rebuilt the house of his parents in Godric's Hollow and had made ensure that everyone who died – Death Eaters included, but at another section – got his own stone. Lily knew that her father was different now. He was happier, relaxed and loving, but that didn't stop him from having nightmares. It didn't stop him from touching his scar – purely out of habit – when something bad happened. He was great, but he was still suffering.

"Lils, you still there?" her mother asked. Lily jumped almost through the roof of the car and tried to keep her breath steady.

"Yeah, still there," she answered.

"What were you thinking about?" her mother asked.

"Well, you know, about you and dad. About the war. Dad will never really get over it, won't he?" Lily asked her mother.

"He never really had a chance. The war has affected him since birth actually and after that happened a lot of horrible things. But, you know, like your uncle Ron likes to say, then he met him and your aunt Hermione and even though they suffered, they were always there for each other. Well, yeah, not always, but your uncle Ron can really be a...dumb person sometimes," her mother said.

"Did you mean to say 'dick' mum?" Lily joked.

"Not in front of the baby. Not in front of the baby!" her mother laughed.

"Mum, will it affect the baby if I'm the only one there for him?" Lily asked. Her father's story really gave her food for thought.

"Darling, of course it will affect him or her, but it doesn't always have to be in a bad way. Besides, your father's story is way different than yours. Your father was never really loved in his youth and your baby will be loved. You will love your baby more than anyone. And Lily, please, never forget: you're not the only one. We will be there. Albus will be there. Merlin, even James will be there if he needs to. Thereby you have a big bunch of cousins who would love to spend time with him or her. You won't be alone." Lily thought about that and fell asleep.

You won't be alone.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.  
**Updated**: May 4 (2016)

* * *

"Hey sweetie how was your day?" Kelsey asked him. Scorpius smiled and gave her a casual kiss on her lips.

"It was alright," he answered as he sat down on the couch. He rested his arm on her shoulder and she lied down against him. It went automatically. In the months they had been together, it just went smoothly. They had been together like a normal couple and their relationship wasn't bothering anyone as Rose was as safe as it could get.

"Alright? But your work is never boring!" Kelsey laughed. Scorpius buried his face in her hair and the smell of her shampoo filled his nose. He coughed. _Roses_. Her shampoo had the smell of _roses_.

"Well, the people dropped the charges against Rose, we can finally look for a way to arrest those people and Rose got a new case. So there isn't anything spectacular going on for a while now," he explained. With a wave of his wand he turned on the radio and shuffled between the stations.

"I'm glad Rose is safe now. Last time I spoke to her I could really see how much it bothered her. Now she can focus on something else! It's good for her. Maybe she finds time for a boyfriend or so, after everything ended so badly with Nick..." Kelsey wondered, but the only thing that Scorpius really heard was 'Rose' and 'boyfriend.' The rest was all rubbish. He knew Kelsey wasn't as supportive as she was acting to be. She acted all nice and lovely, but in reality she hated Rose more than anything. It was like she _knew_ what he and Rose had done. Like she knew what kind of tension there was between them. And it was probably too like she knew what was going on in Rose's head. Something Scorpius wanted to know so badly, but at the same time didn't. No, he had to stop this. It was months ago that he'd promised himself to stop caring about every little thing she did, said or thought.

"How was your day?" Scorpius forced himself to ask her. Why was this so hard? Why was this so unnatural? Why did Kelsey have to bring up Rose - or let him bring up Rose?

"It was amazing! Helga and me saved a guy and it felt so right..." Kelsey began. She talked and talked about this amazing thing while he just nodded and smiled at the right times. He was tired and told himself that it was okay. Kelsey's story was too long to give him the energy to cook, so when she was done he asked her if she was all right with dining outdoors.

"What's the occasion?" she asked. She smiled sweetly and looked down to caught his attention.

"Just...nothing," Scorpius answered. Her smiled went bigger and she winked.

"I'm going to change then," she said. She gave him a sweet kiss, but before she had the chance to make more of it, he stepped back.

"See you in a minute then," he answered.

:: :: ::

After spending diner at the toilet, Helga decided that being pregnant wasn't all that. It wasn't everything she thought it was, but she sighted and cleaned everything up.

"Are you okay?" Frank asked her. Strangely enough, she heard herself saying that she was fine. Even stranger: she felt fine. Not completely, but it - the fetus - was worth it. It wasn't how it was written down in the books, but apparently nothing was, so she shouldn't be so disappointed.

_I think S is going to propose! - K_

The note woke her from her thoughts. S. K. Propose. What? Was Scorpius going to propose?

_Why you think that? - H_

Helga hoped that Kelsey wouldn't mind that she wasn't as enthusiastic as Kelsey obviously was.

_He asked me, all over sudden, if I wanted to go out for dinner and when I searched his pockets earlier this week, I found this black box. We all know what that means... - K_

Typically Kelsey. A day earlier she'd asked her if she was crazy to think Rose was a threat and now this?

_Why were you even searching his pockets? - H_

Of course. Helga had answered the other day that Rose was in a dark place and far from thinking about any romance at all.

_Because, you know, R! I was worried, okay? Even though you said...well, I don't know! But I'm Ms. Malfoy soon! - K_

This wasn't going the right way. If Scorpius would pop out the question, he would at least tell his best friends about it, wouldn't he? In the time that Scorpius had been Rose's bodyguard, Frank and he had talked to each other much more often and now, they were almost as inseparable as Scorpius and Albus.

"Frank?" Helga called. Hearing the footsteps coming slowly towards her, made Helga happy. They were living together. In the same, beautiful-but-expensive house.

"Yes?" Frank answered.

"I got this note from Kelsey. She found a black box in Scorpius's pocket and she thinks Scorpius is going to ask her to marry her. You would know it if this was true, wouldn't you?" she asked. Frank smiled, but looked down.

"Euhm, I don't think Scorpius is going to ask Kelsey to marry him and you know why," he answered smiling. This would be the best thing ever. Scorpius and Kelsey weren't getting married. However Helga knew that Kelsey was in love with Scorpius, Helga also knew her best friend Rose. Seeing from all the signs she and Scorpius had been giving each other, they were so in love.

"I thought so. Kelsey was so concerned yesterday and now this. I'm even thinking she made that ring-story up, but I'm not sure," she laughed.

"Oh, but he did had a ring," Frank said. Helga looked up and gave him a strange look. His face went red when he realized what he'd said.

"Why did he had a ring if he doesn't want to marry Kelsey?" Helga asked. Frank shuffled his feet and avoided her eyes.

"Because...because...because it wasn't his," Frank said slowly.

"But whose was it?" Helga asked. Frank was so uncomfortable that Helga wanted to laugh and kiss him at the same time. He looked kinda cute, but she didn't get it. She only got nosier the more uncomfortable Frank got. Uncomfortable changed to frustrated and that changed into surrender. Frank gave up and spilled it out.

"It was mine,"

"Yours?"

"I was planning on a huge and very romantic proposal, but I apparently can't keep a secret from you. It's a good thing, I guess. Especially if we get married. If we...do you..." Frank didn't end his sentence. He just walked away and left.

"Frank?" Helga called, but she sighted. There were tears in her eyes. _Frank was planning on proposing to her_. She couldn't - and didn't even want to - get it out of her head. The ring...it wasn't Scorpius's? It was Frank's! And then it kicked in.

"O...bugger."

_K, you have to think small instead of big. Big thoughts can be disappointing later on... - H_

:: :: ::

"Mate, I need the ring," Frank said when Scorpius opened the door.

"Of course man, but why now and not...you know...later?" Scorpius asked. Frank got inside and sighted.

"Long story short, Helga discovered the ring and I blurted out it wasn't yours but mine," Frank said. Only now he realized how stupid it sounded. It had been really stupid and it had felt very stupid, but it was starting to feel so much more than that.

"Why would she think it was mine?" Scorpius asked surprised. He gave him the small glass with firewiskey and they toasted without saying what for.

"O man, that's really your problem," Frank laughed and he explained the story.

"So...she thinks I want to marry her?" Scorpius said, his eyes wide open and at the point of almost falling out of his head.

"Yeah, I guess she's very desperate, wanting to marry you," Frank grinned, but Scorpius shook his head.

"This isn't funny, man. She hasn't even met my parents. Of course I've met hers, but I've made sure of it that won't ever happen again. I thought she knew I wanted to take things slow," Scorpius said. His glass was empty in one shot and Frank smiled at his friend.

"I think she also knows what everyone knows. She's kinda your rebound girl. We all know you're still in love with Ro..."

"SH, don't call her name! She'll freak out!"

"Point proven," Frank said. He put his empty glass on the bar.

"Here you go," Scorpius said, as he grabbed the black box out of his pocket and gave it to Frank.

"Thank you for holding on to this," Frank said.

"Thank you for pointing out what I have to do," Scorpius said. Frank walked towards the door and when he turned around, he saw that Kelsey was ready to go out. Scorpius gave her a kiss and pointed at him. Kelsey nodded and sat down on the couch.

"I guess you aren't going to do it, are you?" Frank asked. Scorpius smirked.

"Well, it depends on what you mean by that," he answered. Frank shook his head.

"I'm going mate, I have a woman at home waiting for a question," Frank laughed.

"Wait!" Scorpius said when Frank was about to apparate.

"Aren't you nervous she's going to say no?"

"Honestly? Yes. Even though she's carrying my child and we're living together."

"She won't, you know that," Scorpius smiled.

"Yeah, I know."

But still he was nervous. Still he was thinking that they were rushing everything and it wasn't right. Still he thought she wouldn't want to marry him. So when he came home and went to the room she'd asked him to come to earlier that evening, he decided not to ask the question yet. Instead, he kissed her and she kissed him back.

"Frank?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"You know that I'm still waiting, huh?" Frank laughed and took his coat off. He took the black box and sat down on one knee. All the nerves were gone the minute he opened the box.

"Helga Jordan, would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

"I would love nothing more!"

:: :: ::

"You did WHAT?" Albus couldn't believe his ears when Scorpius has stormed into Rose's house to talk to him. Lucky for Scorpius he knew to murmur a _muffliato_ charm in time for him to burst out the strange story he had to tell him.

"Look, we both knew about the ring and I thought it was the easiest for me to take it, because Helga comes and goes here, but never does that in my house. How could I know Kelsey would search my pockets?" Scorpius exclaimed. He walked from one corner to another in the small room, while he sighted frustratingly.

"Yeah, I get that, but how couldn't you just break up with the girl?" Albus asked.

"She cried, okay? She watched every move I made and the later it got, the more impatient she got. And when we got home, she said she just wanted to shower, but when she came back she smelled of I-just-cried-syndrome," Scorpius said.

"And how do you know that?"

"Because...because...okay you got me. Helga came by to visit Kelsey and told me on the way that she was very angry with me and later on Kelsey didn't even hide the fact she was crying, because she was more whining than crying and she probably recognized the ring, so it was all very dramatic and than we explained everything. She was ashamed of herself of thinking this, while she knew I wanted to take things slowly, so she apologized and now we're taking things slowly."

"Are you proud of yourself?"

"What? Why?"

"Because, according to Helga, - yes I've talked with her too - she doesn't trust Rose until she's dead. It's a bit overdone, but you get the point. I don't think you need someone who accepts it that you're not over Rose and I don't think you need someone who doesn't accept it. You need Rose or you need time. Not a distraction, Scorp," Albus said. Scorpius shook his head.

"No. No. No. No. No. I like Kelsey. She's sweet and kind and loving. She accepts me. We don't fight and it's just...it's nice. We've talked about this, Al! Just let it go, Al!" Scorpius reacted.

"Admit it to yourself!"

"You know, I thought that when I would have trouble with my relationship with Kelsey, you would support me and help me through it. I didn't think you would convince me to break up with her and would give me the I-told-you-so look. If I want to have a relationship with Kelsey, the only thing I ask of you is to support me. Rose and I aren't going to happen, Al!" Scorpius stood up and left the room. Albus sighted and thought about how he let himself go. Before Rose had told him she was in love with Scorpius, he was okay with Scorpius having a relationship with Kelsey. Scorpius needed to move on, because the Rose-thing was never going to happen. But now Rose told him, he wasn't okay anymore. It obviously killed the both of them and with Kelsey being involved, three people were going to get hurt - or hurt already.

"Scorpius!" Albus called out.

"What?!" Scorpius reacted irrated. He had his coat back on and was standing at the door.

"What you told about yesterday means that you do know what you have to do. You do know what you feel! Frank said basically the same I've been saying the whole time! Why can't you just do it?" Albus said. Using words that Rose wouldn't understand if she would overhear them.

"I'm not like Eric, Al. I don't have that much patience," Scorpius answered. Albus got that. Eric had been waiting nine years for him to tell his parents his true self. It was admirable.

"Why are you in such a hurry, Scorp? It's not like you're thirty!" Albus called out.

"Yeah, well, I'd like to see someone who has faith in me. I've waited long enough, Al, and it's clearly not going to happen."

"No, not if you think like this. Please, give it a month. A week maybe."

"No."

"Scorpius, do you imagine what she's going through? How hard this is for her?" Albus was whispering now. Scorpius rolled his eyes and sighted.

"I know and I don't know Al, because she never opened up to me. Never. Only when she was drunk or too tired and that felt like I was abusing her. I opened up, but I never got something back. Please, just stop Al," Scorpius answered. He opened the door.

"Okay, if you're sure you aren't going to regret it, please continue," Albus said.

"Bye, Albus," Scorpius reacted and he closed the door.

:: :: ::

"So, I was thinking about this whole 'who's-the-father'-thing and my conclusion was that you need to tell this mysterious person he's the father," Lily's father told her. She was sitting on the couch of her parental home and her father had just joined her a few minutes ago.

"You know who the father is, don't you?" Lily responded. Her father nodded and held his arm around her.

"We all know it's Lorcan, Lily and we all really think you should tell him," he said.

"Why?" Lily asked.

"Because he, as the father, has the right to know. Don't you think he's wondering whether he's the father or not? Of course he is, and he should be. The guy truly cares about you. He made a mistake, Lily, but it's not like you don't make any! This one is for example a big one. Thinking you can do all this all alone? I don't want to talk you down, but if we're being realistic, we both know this won't work. You've a job, but you can barely afford your apartment. Also, your social life is a mess. And on top of that, you haven't told anyone where you were and what you've done when you were away. Nobody is forcing you to tell them, but we know you've some issues to deal with. This is a whole lot you're going through, Lily, and you should admit that. We think you need to see someone. Someone you can trust and you can talk to." It was a whole lot what her father just told her, but it wasn't untrue. He was totally right, but it was hard to admit that.

"I need help?" she asked.

"Lily, when your mum was pregnant of James, I was scared. I was so scared that what happened to me would ever happen to him. I was terrified, but, as I had experienced so many deaths, I thought I could handle it, but I couldn't. I know our situations aren't exactly the same, but we can compare some things. Things like we both like to say we're strong. And we are strong, Lily, but there are times when we shouldn't be strong and accept that we aren't perfect," he explained.

"But if I tell Lorcan, will I then still need help?" Lily asked.

"I'm not saying that you need to talk to someone who's paid for doing that. I'm saying that you need to talk to someone and if that someone is Lorcan, than that's okay. It's about you getting better."

So Lily went to the hospital and asked for Healer Scamander. When she was told he would have a break within an hour, Lily waited for him to come down.

"Lily?" Lorcan asked. "What are you doing here?" He looked surprised, but still had this shimmer in his eyes what had made her falling for him in the first place.

"I-euhm...-I need to talk to you," Lily said. She pointed out the chair in front of her and he nodded. They sat down at the café of the hospital, but they both didn't care. The only thing that mattered for them was themselves. Like it always had been.

"Okay?" Lorcan said. He was a bit nervous and Lily bit her lip. When she moved her leg, she bumped into his and she blushed.

"Okay, so I-euhm...-I'm pregnant," Lily said. _Stating the obvious here_, she thought.

"Yes, so I've heard," Lorcan answered. He looked down too, but Lily could see his blush. Meanwhile he didn't remove his leg - Merlin he was sexy.

"It's yours," she whispered, but it was loud enough for Lorcan to look up.

"It's mine?" he asked. She nodded and his blush was changing into a more familiar color. The red color his face got when he got excited.

"I'm going to be a father?" he asked again and she nodded again.

"We're going to be parents,' she said. He froze there for a second and Lily looked away immediately.

"That is if you'll ever want to talk to me again or-or-or I don't know do something again. Or-" she didn't manage to end that sentence as Lorcan kissed her.

"I'd like to," he breathed into her hair.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Updated**: May 4 (2016)

* * *

Rose was thinking about New Year's Eve and the resolutions she'd given herself. _Being nicer to you, obviously_, crossed her head. She'd gotten flares of the night back. In the beginning, the only thing she remembered was them fighting. Fighting like they'd always done and fighting like she'd started the next day. The next thing she remembered were these intense feelings. Passion, such passion. It was then that she realized it really happened. They really had sex. But then, later on, she remembered she'd heard things before. Keywords and they activated her drunken mind. Keywords like...resolutions. They'd talked about some serious stuff that night and even though they were probably drunk already, they'd meant what they said. It was wrong. Everything that happened that day was wrong. Even though Scorpius had been perfectly nice, Rose was still recovering from her break-up with Nick. _You wouldn't want to be called Finch-Fletchley Weasley anyways._ No. She didn't. She had never wanted it, really, but how would he guess that? Of course. Albus. Albus was one to talk about everything and everyone. Helga had made some pretty sharp remarks about their 'relationship' and how the hell she knew all those weird things about him. It made her realize that she knew Scorpius. She knew him better than she'd thought and vice versa. Above that, their drunk talk had been nice. They had been able to talk to each other without hating each other and even Scorpius's time as bodyguard hadn't been as bad as thought. They were able to be civil. They were able to talk. They were able to look into each others eyes without resisting the urge to scratch them out. And with that, Rose had been able to fall in love with Scorpius. When she'd talked to Helga about it, she'd told her that Rose didn't even know the guy, but Rose realized that wasn't true. She did know him, but she never really gave him a chance.

:: :: ::

Her heart pounded and her heartbeat increased. She was nervous. With a simple push on the doorbell she'd confessed her presence. She didn't know the exact address, but with some persuading, Rose managed to get the information out of Albus. It hadn't even been much trouble, but she understood. As it was Eric who opened the door when she'd visited Albus, Rose could completely understand that Albus wasn't in the mood for being moody and bored. He was simply happy, even though the way towards their happiness hadn't been that easy.

Rose heard footsteps and the last change of leaving the place was ticking away as the footsteps came closer. Would it be him who opened the door, or would it be Kelsey? What would she do if Kelsey would open the door?

"Rose?" It was him. He'd said her first name. Rose swallowed and suddenly she didn't remember what she wanted to say in the first place. While looking for an answer, Rose discovered that his face was a bit red and his forehead was sweaty. Rose flustered red only at the thought of what she could've interrupted. She remembered that look and she quickly sought some other point to focus on. His clothes for example. The fact that he wasn't wearing anything what would in any way refer to what he was doing before.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything?" Rose decided to say. It was probably the thing to say that sounded the least idiotic and it would perhaps explain why she'd been standing there for a while without saying anything.

"No, you're not. Would you like to come in?" he asked. He smiled sweetly and Rose felt her heartbeat rising. Okay, so now it was really official. Sweaty, butterflies, trembling knees. She was in love with him.

They were sitting in his living room, sipping from their drinks. Neither Rose nor Scorpius said anything and for quite a while it stayed like this.

"So, what are you doing here?" asked Scorpius.

"You're probably wondering while I'm still here?" asked Rose at the same time. They laughed.

"You-"

"-no you first." Rose took a deep breath and smiled at him.

"I wanted to apologize," she said. She realized they were acting way more formal than they'd ever been. The last months proved that they had only two ways to act around each other. Or they were fighting, or they were civil. Formal, awkward and nervous like this, they'd never been.

"Apologize?" Scorpius answered surprised. It was a sincere surprised look, Rose discovered.

"I've been acting like...like a total prick. Not only the last few months, but also the last decade or so. You know, it was hard for me to see Albus choosing you, instead of me, but I guess I understand now that he needed you. He needed someone to guide him through Slytherin and he needed some guy-friends. I'm not as good as making friends as Albus is and thereby many people only wanted to be friends with me - or anyone of my family for that matter - because of my surname. I felt like you replaced me, but I didn't realize that such a thing never happened. Thereby I really didn't like it that you were worth to compete with in classes and you were so much better at Quidditch than I ever was. I believe my father was never more disappointed in me when he heard the news. Okay, I'm digressing. What I really wanted to say was: 'I'm sorry, I hope we can start again. Friends?'" With that, two memories came back into her head. _"You and I can never be friends, Malfoy. Way to complicated."_ Rose remembered his face. Sarcastic and mocking. He got her exactly where he wanted her. Taking the things he said way to serious. _"Hey Rose?" "Mmmm?" "Do you think we will ever become friends?" "I don't know. Perhaps we already are."_ They were only a few hours later and her thoughts about him had changed completely. And here she was, asking him to be friends, while she'd been giving him weird answers every last time he'd asked her.

"I must say that this wasn't anything I expected, Rose. The least, actually. I never hated you, you know, not really. No, I disliked you and I just teased you, because your uptight character made it a lot more fun to do. Of course we disagreed on everything, but I silently laughed over our fights. You're kind of the sister I never had," he answered. He smiled at her, but didn't know how much more pain he'd caused her. Sister? He sure as hell didn't think about her as a sister at New Year's Eve.

"So, yes. I think that's the answer. Friends."

:: :: ::

Time went by. Faster and faster. Lily's due date came closer quicker than she could ever imagine. She had mixed feelings about the baby. Being pregnant meant that she didn't have a baby, _yet_. Having a baby meant that she wouldn't have this incredible huge belly anymore. It wasn't funny anymore. It was torture. The only thing that made it better was knowing that the father was there. After they'd began slowly, things took a quick turn. Their chemistry was still there and the more they tried to ignore it, the more it chased them. So they moved in together and they spent the day thinking about names, the room for the baby and what it meant for their relationship. They talked about if they wanted to get married or not (no, only if they were sure, not only because of the baby, Lily said) and the both of them were surprised by how easy things went. Her love for Lorcan was still there and she knew he loved her too, but they didn't want to rush into things. They had been broken up for six months, it wasn't something they could just pass overnight. When the time would be right, they could look past it, but now wasn't the time. Now was the time they were still together. Just the two of them and they needed that time. Soon there would be a third person there and eighteen years later would be the first time to talk about their relationship. No, it was better they talked about those things now.

:: :: ::

He was happy with Kelsey and so she should be happy for him. She had her chance and she screwed up, so it was completely her own fault. If she'd realized she liked him way sooner, they could have had a chance, but that time was now past tense. She needed to move on. It was that moment, right there, that Rose realized how much she wanted to talk to her own mother. Her mother knew how to deal with death treats in combination with a crappy love life. She'd never told much about it, but perhaps she would like to talk now. Rose walked towards her car and smiled by the action of leaving her house and driving in her car, without feeling unsafe. Albus still needed to go with her to some cases in the courtyard, because not everyone was that easy to let go of a grudge, but that was all. And even though she was allowed to apparate and floo again, Rose liked driving in her car. It felt like she just stepped into the car when she drove into the lane her parents lived. With a rising heartbeat, she knocked on the door. It was the second time she visited someone that day and the second time she was nervous.

"Rose?" her mum asked surprised. Of course she was surprised. Aside from some business trips, Rose hadn't visited her parents much. But this was serious and she had really missed them. She had really missed all the love they could gave her. Rose couldn't handle anymore pain or rejection and without giving her mother a chance to pull back, she hugged her. The tears fell down of her cheeks and what started as somewhere cute, ended as really messy, un-charmingly flow of tears. When Rose finally calmed down, she discovered she wasn't standing in the doorway anymore, but they were sitting on the couch in the living room. Her mother didn't ask anything - she didn't have to - but just hold her and waited for Rose to process everything.

"Darling are you okay?" she asked and Rose knew she meant it right. Of course she wasn't okay, but this wasn't what her mother meant. _Do you want to talk about it?_ was what she meant.

"I visited a guy today. A guy I discovered I fell in love with months ago, but now it's too late. He already loves someone else," Rose said. She didn't have to tell her mother the part about her old case. Her mother knew that that was bothering her.

"It's not wrong to feel heartbroken because of a boy, Rose. And in your case, it's absolutely not wrong. You're already broken and this was the only sparkle of hope you held on to. Your father was my sparkle of hope once, when we were looking for Horcruxes. His love was the thing that kept me alive after everything in my heart already died. But, you know, he left us, your uncle Harry and me, and it made me realize that you can't put all of your faith in one person. It breaks you. You need to be stronger than that and I know you are, Rosie. It's not wrong to love someone with everything in you, but it's wrong to risk everything for love," her mother reacted. She stroke her hair and gave her a sweet smile.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Rose, but I think you need to give this time before you tell your father about this. Perhaps you should wait until something is actually happening between the two of you. We all know that he became a little overprotective after Nick and when he hears about this guy..." her mother smiled. Half of her head was asking herself how her mother knew which guy she was talking about, the other half said: 'She's Hermione Weasley, obviously.' Rose grinned, but after some realization she just sighted again.

"Mum, you know that I basically told you he has a girlfriend?" Rose answered.

"I don't see how that's supposed to stop you?"

:: :: ::

**A/N**: Okay, so to just to be sure and to not have any confusion about this: Hermione is saying to Rose she has to fight for Scorpius and to not give him up that easily. If Scorpius is really in love with Kelsey, he won't let her go and if he isn't...he'll definitely need that push. Hermione sees her own relationship reflected here in Rose, because Ron needed a little push too, otherwise he would never admit he loved her. Hermione is _not_ saying to Rose she should break them up!


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.  
**Updated**: May 4 (2016)

* * *

"So you're pregnant?" Rose asked Helga. She was sitting on their new couch in their new home. At least, new for Rose, as she hadn't been able to visit her best friend sooner.

"Yes," Helga blushed. She hold her hands against her head, shaming for the fact she blushed, which made her even more red.

"And you're engaged?" Rose asked. She pointed at the subtle, but still very obvious diamond ring at Helga's finger.

"Yes," Helga answered again. Her hands fell down on her lap, knowing that it made no sense to hide her shame and excitement

"And you're living in a beautiful house?" Rose asked.

"Yes," was the answer yet again.

"And all of this in barely a month or two, three? Shit, Helga, your life is even more exciting than mine!" Rose exclaimed. She grabbed Helga's hand to take a loser look at her ring. It was beautiful, but Rose knew that Frank could've given her a free ring from those devices at a fair and still she would've said yes. She knew her friends since birth or so, but got to know them better since the beginning of Hogwarts. They weren't together before their sixth year, but even before that the sings that what they had was special, were already there. It was now that Rose could see that. At that time, it wasn't strange at all that Frank always chose Helga over her for partner work. Rose always worked with Albus — if they shared their class with Slytherin and if Albus wasn't working with Scorpius. Otherwise, Rose worked with a boy named Daniel. Daniel had been a fellow Gryffindor and was very smart. He never outsmarted Rose, but he was willing to try. He was quite like her, not much of a Quidditch fan and got her way of thinking during a project. Rose trusted him because of that and that helped with their partner work.

Daniel. Rose smiled at the thought of him. She'd forgotten about him, like she'd forgotten about many of them. Mostly because she'd been obsessed with Nick since her fifth year — the same year Helga started being obsessed with Frank. The moment when Helga had started to speak about Frank in a different sentence than as a friend, Rose panicked. She never had thought about the possibility to have a boyfriend or to be in love. When her mother talked about the birds and the bees with her, she never really wanted to know anything about it. She just wasn't ready. Perhaps that had been the mistake all along in her whole relationship with Nick. She just wasn't ready for someone like Nick. So she'd pointed at Nick, saying to Helga that she knew the feelings she'd been talking about. All that time she'd felt the same about Nick."But you barely know him!" Helga had said and from then it had been Rose's mission to get to know him and Nick never protested to any of her attempts to convince her friends. He gladly played along — without even knowing he was in a play. Rose never really fell in love with him, but she fell in love with the thought of being in love. The way she saw Helga and the silly things she said to Frank because that, were just something Rose didn't know. She didn't know how it felt to be in love and if Rose Weasley hates one thing, it is not knowing something.

"God, I've never been in love with Nick," Rose said. Helga, who had been rambling about baby names, gave her big eyes and after that short moment of shock and not knowing what Rose was talking about, she smiled.

"How so?" she asked.

"I was thinking about you and Frank getting married and than that you two always have been meant to be together and than my thoughts went all the way down to the Hogwarts days and it made me think about when you admitted you were in love with Frank," Rose said. Helga smiled and looked away, thinking about the same moment.

"Merlin, I was so relieved to hear that you knew what I was talking about at the time," Helga laughed.

"I wasn't obsessed with Nick. He'd just walked into the library and knowing that he was a decent person, I said what I said, because it was way better than saying what I actually thought," Rose said softly.

"It was years later, when Nick had told us he had bought an engagement ring that I realized what I should've realized all along. If you really felt the way I felt, you would never doubt marrying the guy, but you — of course — already knew he had bought the ring — he wasn't good with surprises and you are just...you — and you panicked, because you didn't want to say yes, but you didn't dare to say no," Helga smiled.

"I think I just went with it. Because I never expected Nick to give me the attention I'd given him. I expected him to reject me and that I perhaps cried a little and moved on. I never expected him to go out with me and to fall in love with the way he treated me. The way he'd fallen in love with me. I think I was so desperate to love him, that I didn't realize I didn't love him. You know, I just thought of someone I had been partnering up with when Frank partnered up with you — Daniel. Do you remember Daniel? When Nick and I started to do some things together, I never talked to him again. The weird thing is that I have this strange feeling that I would've dated Daniel if I wouldn't be trying to have a fake-relationship with Nick to please you. In any case, I think I probably could've. If I asked him, I don't think he would've rejected me and I would've said yes if he asked me, I think. We wouldn't look bad together, would we?" Rose said. Both girls let that sink in for a minute and sipped of their water-in-a-wineglass. It was this kind of thing they started with when they were younger. Of course their parents would never allow them to drink the real stuff, but luckily, her mum had some old-fanshioned-muggle wineglasses and filled them with water.

"Daniel came to me, you know. When you decided to never talk to him again. He thought he'd made you angry or something. He didn't get your relationship with Nick, but never really judged it. I told him you were in love with him and that perhaps it was hard for Rose to speak with other guys because you didn't want to give Nick the wrong message. Don't judge me, Rose, I was also a stupid sixteen-year-old. I'd just red a book that said that kind of thing and I took it as the truth," Helga said. Rose gave her friend a surprised look and nodded.

"I was stupid teenager, you know? All those years are a total waste of time. I thought you would hate me if I didn't feel the same and after that I desperately wanted to feel the same thing and the thing is, you don't know what it is to be in love until the moment you really fall in love with someone. And now, I realize, I never was in love with Nick," Rose sighted. It was only karma that now she actually was in love with someone, that person didn't feel the same.

"How are you Rose? I mean, really. I want to know the truth," Helga asked.

"I'm fine, actually. It was...hard in the beginning, but then — you know — it just...you just...go with it. I think I'm not good at seeing the two of them together, but yeah, need to move, I guess," Rose smiled.

"You've been through a lot, Rose, especially lately. It's okay to take a break!" Helga said.

"Yeah, but I don't want to take a break. I think I'm going to contact Daniel or so, to discover what he's up to lately. And to give him a far too late apology, but still. I don't like the way Daniel and I left things, so I'm going to talk to him," she decided.

"Rose, you can't use Daniel as your rebound, you know?" Helga exclaimed.

"Yeah, but...I don't use him as my rebound! He's just...a friend?" Rose answered. She didn't even know that. She couldn't think that if she started to contact Daniel, he would be happy and open to respond. Of course that would be like the Daniel she knew from Hogwarts, but this wasn't fifth grade anymore. Things changed. She changed and he probably changed as well.

"I'll just try to contact him, Helga, I can't expect more of him," Rose finally decided and Helga nodded.

"That sounds decent."

:: :: ::

"SILENCE!" A woman with dark hair and the same long, pail and twisted face as her father commanded for the crowd's quietness. Her hair was quite long and shaggy. People often mistook her for her mother even though her father's trades were right there. Mary Dolohov, standing on some kind of a platform, showing her rank. Donald Rowle and Terra Macnair were close, but they were standing behind her. No one could mistake her for someone she wasn't. She knew her father was more than a follower, but this was something Mary inherited from her mother. She was a natural leader. It was three months after Rose Weasley had set them free. Of course those nasty Aurors didn't stop researching them, but they were mostly left alone. The people had a new person to be angry at. Rose Weasley. It had been such a lovely and vulnerable girl. Mary almost pitied her, but didn't because of her surname. Eventually, her parents and their money would safe her, that was something Mary never had. Because of _her_ surname she'd to run away or fight with anyone who recognized it. They'd killed her mother even though she'd been innocent. People said the war was over, but for Mary it had never stopped. Everything that had happened to her, made her more brutal than she already was. Rose Weasley had given her the chance. The chance to finally have revenge.

"We should be thankful to Rose Weasley for setting us free!" Mary shouted at the crowd. Their army had grown thanks to all the publicity in all the papers. Of course they needed to be trained, but a few extra wands weren't exactly unnecessary.

"We're a free 'political party' as I like to call it," Mary continued. People laughed and cheered and Mary smiled. Their party slash army was perhaps a lot messier and les cruel than Voldemort's army, but they were loyal. Humor, power and hate were the things that bonded them. There was no fear.

"Y'all should prepare for a fight real soon! Most people are forgetting about us, but we shouldn't underestimate them. Their Aurors know we're still coming, but we should surprise them. We shall not attack at an event nor night. We'll attack on just another normal day. It is then that they won't expect us. We use cloaking spells and this week we'll be practicing especially on this spell. If only one of us is visible, we're screwed. Y'all be prepared! If I tell you we're attacking right now, then we're attacking right now. I don't care about your precious picture frames with your precious family. I told all of you from the beginning that we're not like that anymore. You're a Knight of Walpurgis now. A part of our group. We accept you, no matter what. We need you. Every. Single. One of you. We are the good guys, not them!" Mary didn't use a raising voice to get their attention. She used words and emotions. She made it personal. She taught her army that they weren't an army. She taught them every little shitty thing she wanted them to know so they would join her. Most of them didn't even know her real plan. Most of them just thought she wanted to kill. And she wanted that, but she also wanted more. Much more.

:: :: ::

"There was a time that you trusted me that I meant it what I said."

CLING! Lily didn't realize at first that the plate she'd in her hand was now on the ground. Slowly she brought her dish towel towards her hands, but only after a minute she noticed that she was drying her hands instead of a plate. Looking at the ground made her realize that the plate had fallen and was now in a million of shattered pieces, some bigger than others.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Lily asked when her voice had figured out how to talk again. She kneeled down to pick up the pieces, but her belly was mostly protesting.

"I'll clear it up later," Lorcan mumbled, while helping Lily up. He was done doing the dishes, but she was clearly not done with her part. Lorcan sighted and accompanied her to the living room.

"Lily you heard what I said," he said.

"Yeah, I know, I just wondered...why you said it," Lily answered softly. She lay down on her couch. The nights had been killing her and somehow she was wishing her baby would magically pop out of her and lay down next to her the next morning.

"Because this month I've proposed three times and every time you rejected me. I admit, the first proposal wasn't a real proposal and you had some valid points, but I've considered those points and still want to marry you!" Lorcan exclaimed a bit to loud. Lily caressed her belly and sighted.

"Lorcan we're just back together and I don't want immediately to rush into a marriage!" Lily responded. It hadn't been the response Lorcan wanted, because his ears were bright red, matching Lily's hair.

"We're just back together? Don't all those years before that count? We've been together for...three, almost four, years? We know each other since birth and you don't want to rush into things? I'm asking you to marry me, Lily. I'm not saying we should get married now, I say we should get married someday!" was Lorcan's answer.

"Yeah, but you have to propose now? If you want to get married someday, why don't you propose _someday_?" Lily cried softly, caressing her belly like it was the only sacred thing in the world.

"That is because I don't know when we'll get married, but I do know I _want_ to marry you! Don't you want that too?"

"Yes of course I want that too, you know that, but that's not fair! I haven't been fair to you, Lorcan. Not since we fought and I left. I never told you I was pregnant, nor did I update you on anything. As you're the father, I should've done all of that with you, but I didn't because I was selfish. And who says I won't be selfish again in the future? Isn't it easier that way?"

"You don't want to marry me, because you think you were selfish? Lily of course I was angry at you for thinking that I would ever cheat on you, but you were pregnant at the time _and_ normally you're also a bit of a hysterical, hormonal girl, but that's what I love about you. We needed some space at the time, but it was selfish of me to think that this was only going about you thinking I cheated on you. This was about you wanting me to marry you, to propose to you. I've had this ring since the moment I realized that you gave me the biggest compliment ever, but I've never had the chance to really give it to you!" The box was already out if his pocket and slowly he knelt down on one knee.

"Lily Luna Potter, would you please do me the honor of marrying me?" Lily — who had tears in her eyes for a while now — broke completely and sobbed loudly. Her wet "yes" was barely audible, but it was enough for Lorcan. Surprised he stood up, putting the ring on her hand and kissing the hell out of her. She'd finally said yes.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA  
**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.  
**Published**: May 9 (2016)

* * *

It was an Halfblooded which who'd found in her boyfriend's drawer something she wasn't allowed to read, but something she'd been searching for a long time now. Her boyfriend was gone for some time, so it was only logical that she was searching though his protected stuff. Perhaps she could find him, now that he'd been gone for weeks. It wasn't like something spectacular had happened, no, it was actually the opposite. Nothing had happened for days, weeks now. They had been loving and living the good life for a while, but then he started to be a lot less...present. Not only physically, mostly mentally. It was like she was talking to a wall. Luckily for the which, she knew some people who would gladly make him present again. His distraction needed to go away from him. His distraction needed to die, so the Halfblooded which threw all kinds of illegal spells towards her boyfriend's desk and found the information that she needed. She could've found them without destroying half her house, but this was so much more fun than that. She took her wand in her hand and apparated to the place she needed to be.

"I'm finally going to get revenge, mama," she whispered towards her wand, which had been her mothers'. She died in the Second Wizarding War, leaving her muggle father with a lot of magical crap and her. She knew her mother wasn't afraid to die or something. She was willing to die for her Lord, because they shared the same believe. She'd never known her mother, but her father had told her about her. She'd been the most amazing woman he'd ever met and there was so much he didn't know about her. It had surprised the both of them so much when she turned out magical. Her father had cried; something of her mother's still lived on in her, because all of her looks where her fathers's. It was Hogwarts where she went to and she'd met a lot of people. She didn't understand the excitement about the famous crowd there at the school, but ignored it and lived her life at the fullest. Until she'd heard her mothers name. Her _real_ name. It had shocked her that the woman she was so proud of, was actually _that_ woman and that was when her life had changed completely. She wanted to get revenge. There were people out there who'd killed her mother with pleasure. People who were even closer than she wanted to admit. She finally understood the excitement about the big crowd, but now in a more negative way. She wanted them dead, all of them. For years she was searching for an opportunity and she'd found the right people to help her, but then she really understood those famous people. They were one, big family. One happy, big family and they all loved and trusted each other. It was difficult to get into the crowd, but when they trusted you, you could do anything. And so it happened. She happened to become roommates with a trusted friend of the family and that was her way in. She met a family full of conflicts and discovered some of the issues that could break them. She encouraged her roommate to encourage her friend to do the dangerous thing she wanted to do. She saw her roommate's friend fall in love with a boy before she even knew it and then she started to step in. He would become her guy and she would make the girl so insanely jealous that she would step into the trap that the Knights of Walpurgis were making for her. It was amazing.

She was a bit nervous as it would be now that would be her first time to go to the actual Kings of Walpurgis's shelter. She would finally meet the Mary Dolohov. She breathed in and out and knocked on a door with her wand. The door opened quickly and saw the amazing underground city that they'd managed to make. No one was in their room, no one was walking in the corners, except for her. The whole building didn't make a noise, except for her. And then she was there. Mary didn't look like she'd pictured her. No, she looked even more evil and there was a flinch of her which was scared. She was scared as well, as she had to tell Mary one bad thing. Her boyfriend wasn't at the place he was supposed to be and even though he had given her an opportunity to clean his room, it wasn't good new. She walked quickly towards Mary. They shook hands and Mary turned towards her people.

"Ladies and gentleman, let me give you the honor to meet our secret weapon, Kelsey Carrow!"

:: :: ::

"Scorpius, you need to go home," Albus said, but Scorpius didn't react. He just stared towards whatever was out of the window of Albus's guest room. Eric had been gone for a week for some game in the middle of nowhere, but Albus couldn't join him because of his job.

"Al, I know that last time we spoke about this I jelled at you, but things are a bit different now," Scorpius said. Albus grinned but quickly stopped, because of the look Scorpius gave him.

"Yeah no shit things are different, why the hell would you be sleeping in my guest room otherwise?"he decided to say. Something in Scorpius had changed his mind about...about almost everything.

"We...she...I...in the middle of everything she decides to go to my house and asks me if I want to be friends with her!" Scorpius exclaimed. Albus didn't understand what his friend was saying, but he knew that he would start to explain it all in no time.

"Kelsey and I were finally making up after that engagement-drama. You know - where I had Frank's ring and Kelsey apparently thought I wanted us to marry. Actually the only way to solve this problem had to really ask Kelsey to marry me, but you know that I don't want to do that - a while ago I didn't even do girlfriends, let alone marriage. So I explained that to her and she was sort of happy again and a few days later she seduced me and I was done with everything too, so in the middle of everything the door rings. So Kelsey says to me that I shouldn't open the door, but I do it anyways and then it's her. And I can see that she's surprised and everything and I'm surprised and everything is weird and then she wants to be friends. Like, what the hell of course I don't want to be friends and then I say yes. I say I want to be friends," Scorpius said. He put his hand through his hair and sat down. Then he stood up. And sat down again.

"I don't know what the hell I have to do with her. She's making me go insane, Al!" Scorpius finally just sat down quietly and kept his mouth shut while Albus processed what was happening.

"So you love her?" he asked, but Scorpius didn't answer him.

"Dude, you totally love her," Albus grinned and Scorpius punched him softly, but then grinned too.

"Yeah, hell I do. I have no clue what that actually means as in how insane I must be, but yeah, I love her." Albus looked at him and Scorpius punched him again.

"What dude, you look so soppy and in love," Albus grinned and Scorpius mouth dropped open in disbelieve.

"And what, you cried what like a soppy baby when Eric left you?" Now it was Albus's time to punch Scorpius.

"Can I just say that the two of you are such crybabies? Both of you?" said a voice from the kitchen.

"Eric! You're home early!" Albus said, who sprinted towards the kitchen.

"AAAAHHH MY EYES ALBUS I'M GONE," Scorpius exclaimed when he saw the two boys kiss each other.

"And you say that, while you were practically on top of Rose one morning?" Albus said and Scorpius blushed a bit.

"In that case, do go on, but I'm sure leaving," Scorpius said.

"Wait! Give me one second!" Albus exclaimed. Eric and Scorpius grinned both.

"One second, is that all I get after being away for a week?" Eric said and Albus looked a bit desperate.

"I _have_ to help Scorpius and Rose, you know I do and then I'll be back sir," Albus answered.

"Merlin, you're a hopeless romantic, you're lucky that I'm too tired to do anything right now, but be prepared when you come home!" Eric answered smoothly. The two kissed again and Scorpius walked away quietly.

"I really don't have to know anything of your sexual agenda, thank you very much," he yelled at the two, as he decided to wait outside. Albus deserved some love after all that time of being miserable - if only he wasn't so desperate to find love himself.

:: :: ::

Rose decided she liked to have her own house on her own again. This was however the first time she hadn't shared her house with anyone and it was finally quiet for her and her thoughts again. She could finally have a bath again, without being paranoid that someone would walk in and interrupted her precious Rose-time.

The door rang. Classy. Her Rose-time interrupted again. She quickly got her bathrobe and walked towards the door. Sneaking through her window next to the door, she saw it was Kelsey. What was she doing here?

"Merlin, Rose, I need your help!" Kelsey exclaimed, obviously not noticing what Rose was wearing.

"I'm sorry Kelsey, can't this wait until later?" Rose answered bored. Stupid girl with an even more stupid boyfriend who was her friend now.

"No, I mean, didn't you hear?" Kelsey said. There were tears in her eyes and Rose sighted.

"Fine, explain, but be quick, my water is getting cold," Rose said.

"Scorpius is gone and all the Auror's are looking for him. I don't know what happened. He just...was gone and I didn't know what to do so I send a patronus to your uncle and he said they will be looking for him," Kelsey said. Scorpius was gone? Even though Rose didn't want to admit it, she was more scared than ever.

_Scorpius was gone. _

_But he was an Auror, he should be safe! _

_But it's _Scorpius_!_

"Let me talk to my father, perhaps he can help us?" Rose said.

"It's no use, they're already gone! I checked it, I tried everyone!" Kelsey said. It did make sense, Rose thought. Plus, it was Scorpius.

"What can I do?" Rose asked. Maybe she could do something. Maybe she could finally do something. Maybe she could finally help them.

"Come with me!" Kelsey said. She touched Rose's arm - and she let her. They apparated to some place Rose didn't know.

"Where are we?" Rose asked.

"_Petrificus Totalus_!"

:: :: ::

**A/N**: So, finally. After some whole-lot-of-time I continue my story. It'll be around 5 more chapters and then it's the end, because otherwise you'd have to wait your whole life for a next chapter :P. Also I would like to add that Scorpius isn't disgusted by the fact Albus is kissing another boy, just that he's kissing in front of Scorpius with someone and he's just joking around.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Published**: May 24 (2016)

* * *

People were talking and doing things. Rose heard, felt and saw everything she wanted, but she couldn't _do_ anything about it. Was ever wrong for her to trust Kelsey? Yes it was, except that she'd distrust Kelsey for all the wrong reasons. They'd hold her captive and Rose knew exactly who they where and what they were doing. She knew more than anyone because of her research and she'd been the right one to held captive, as her family and thereby their ministry wanted look for her, but the rest of the people didn't. They would protest, because Rose was a traitor already and then, they would say that the Knights of Walpurgis perhaps would be better than their original ministry, because even though they were descendants from the people they feared, they'd never done anything wrong themselves. It was so true and Rose saw that slowly everything fell into place. She laughed at herself. Wasn't this all very ironic? The only thing she was relieved about was Kelsey coming by _during_ her bath and not after that. There was a letter on her desk for Daniel, asking to meet him again someday and chitchat about Merlin knows what. She was a bit insecure about sending the letter and decided to do it after her bath. It wasn't right to put Daniel in all this mess, it was better for him to never hear from her again - for as far it was possible.

Rose didn't feel the urge to fight for her freedom. She'd been in the prison for a long time now - even though this prison was definitely less comfortable. She had a feeling her war was over. Maybe her family would see the troubles of getting her back and they would just think it would be better to leave her alone if that would mean it would save her country. Rose didn't know how much time had passed since she made the stupid mistake of trusting Kelsey. Had her family already noticed she was gone? Did...did anyone tell Scorpius? What would his reaction be like? They were friends now, weren't they? Even though they hadn't speak to one another since she'd caught him that evening, they were friends, right? Would he care? Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he would laugh it off and run to the next girl when he would discover that Kelsey was gone too. Somewhere in her heart Rose knew that Scorpius wasn't like that. All the conversations they had, everything they'd been through, she'd gotten to know him pretty well. He wasn't the kind of guy he wanted people to think he was. He was caring, lovable, kind and protecting when you got close to him and they'd gotten pretty close. She'd been so stubborn in not admitting to him what she really wanted to admit; she loved him. More than a friend. Even though it had been so hard for her to go to him and make a peace offer, she should've been more braver to tell him the truth. She was still a Gryffindor for Merlin's sake! Almost a Ravenclaw, but she'd been brave enough to belong to Gryffindor, so she should be brave enough to tell Scorpius Freaking Malfoy she loved him, didn't she?

Merlin's beard, was Scorpius Malfoy really the only thing she could think about now? Maybe it was time to do some other brave and smart things, like thinking about how the hell she could get out of her. She was Rose Weasley for Merlin's sake! She didn't need anyone to free her, she could free herself!

:: :: ::

"So Scorpius, you really owe me for sacrificing my precious time to get the two of you together!" Albus said and Scorpius laughed.

"Really Albus, are you being like that? It's not like you've been planning this since kindergarten, like me!" The boys were startled by Lily, who thought too, it was finally time to bring the two of them together.

"Since kindergarten, Lils?" Scorpius asked surprised. All _he_ could think about in kindergarten was how incredibly annoying Rose was.

"Come on, your chemistry was there since the beginning and I was so happy when Rose _finally _admitted she was in love with you!" Lily laughed, "Not that I was surprised of course, I mean, you two have been drooling around each other since you both hit puberty!" Scorpius stood suddenly very still.

"What did you say there Lils?" he asked slowly.

"Come on, like you didn't know!" she laughed, but when she looked at the two guys she realized he really didn't know.

"Al? Really? You didn't tell him?" she said surprised. Normally the two told each other everything.

"You _knew_ too?" Scorpius said with big eyes.

"Yeah...but...I'm...I'm Rose's best friend too, okay! It's not my job to...to tell him!" Albus said to defend himself.

"How long?" Scorpius asked.

"I...euhm..." Albus stuttered.

"How long have you known?" Scorpius demanded.

"I think a month or so for the both of us, but we all know Rose kinda fell in love with you at New Year's Eve. Before that...she didn't even think about it, but the chemistry...that was already there," Lily answered for the both of them.

"So you mean, when she came by to ask me if we could be friends...she was in love with me?" he asked.

"Hell yes," Albus grinned softly.

"Merlin, I'm so stupid," Scorpius groaned and he turned to Rose's door.

"ROSE!" he yelled as he bonked on her door, but no one answered it.

"That's strange," Albus said, "Rose said she would be home."

"Rose doesn't just go somewhere nowadays, I don't understand," Lily said. She softly stroked her belly and thought where she could be, when she suddenly felt so much pain.

"Lils? What's going on? Is it the baby?" Albus asked when he saw his sister searching for something to hold on to.

"I don't know..." she managed to say and Albus picked her up.

"Where is your car Lils?" he asked.

"My car?" she answered confused.

"Lily, don't tell me you apparated your way to Rose's house?" Albus said angrily, "Don't you know how dangerous that is? Lils, c'mon!" He quickly send an emergency patrones to St. Mungo's and tried to catch his breath.

"Okay, Scorpius, you go to my dad and ask him when he or anyone else in my family last have seen Rose, don't tell them about Lily yet, she'll recover in St. Mungo's and I'll stay with her!" Albus said and Scorpius nodded. He didn't understand it anymore, what was going on?

:: :: ::

She was in love with him and that was all he could think about right now. He _had_ to find her and to tell her everything and they really had so much catching up to do. The nerve she'd had to barge into his house and to ask him if he wanted to be _friends_ with her when she felt the same way as he did! How was this possible? In this time, his father had told him that people would distrust him too, because he was a Malfoy. Children of acquaintances of his grandfather had been doing all kinds of things that people like him - children of acquaintances of his grandfather who tried to do the right thing for a change - would destroy. They'd worked so hard to prove they were different and now this, but he was still friends with Albus, he was still an Auror and Rose Weasley still fell in love with him, so maybe people wouldn't distrust him so bad. As quick as he could he apparated himself to Auror Potter Senior's office and knocked on his door.

"Ah, Scorpius, I thought it was your day off," the Auror grinned.

"Yes it was, Albus and I wanted pay Rose a visit, but she wasn't there. Albus said that was a bit strange, as she never really leaves her house without telling someone about it, so we were wondering when the last time was you have seen Rose," Scorpius asked. The Auror looked immediately a lot more serious and searched quickly through his stuff on his desk.

"I haven't seen Rose for a week, but perhaps her parents have seen her. I'll ask them. Thank you for telling me this, Scorpius. I'll give you a call if we're going to need a search party," he answered and he gave Scorpius a quick smile. Scorpius tried to protest, but realized there wasn't much he could say.

"I'll be ready then," he sighted.

:: :: ::

'What's going on?" Lorcan asked surprised, when he saw Cedric and their crew preparing theirselves for surgery.

"There's been an emergency. A pregnant woman apparently apparated without thinking about it," Cedric answered and he walked away.

"Can you gather the personal information about this woman?" he asked just before he left and Lorcan nodded. He sent a patronus towards the girls of administration and soon followed their response.

"It's just a girl with the age of twenty-two, apparated just a half an hour ago, without realizing what kind of effect it would have on her. Her name is Lily Potter..." Lorcan didn't listen anymore. Lily. Lily had _apparated_ while she was pregnant. How many times had he told her she couldn't do that? When Cedric came into the room again, Lorcan repeated the information without paying attention to what he was saying.

"Lorcan, you can't help us with this surgery," Cedric said, but Lorcan only wanted to run, run, run and find his...his _fiancé_. He just wanted to hold her and to be able to tell her that everything was going to be alright.

"Lorcan, stop, there's nothing you can do!" Cedric said, but he still took Lorcan with him, but only stopped in front of the door of the emergency room.

"I'm going in and I promise you I'm doing my very best. I'm going to do everything I can," he said and Lorcan nodded.

"Hey mate," someone said. Lorcan turned around to see Albus sitting there, looking as pale as he probably looked.

"She's going to be fine, you know. She'll make sure of it," Albus smiled.

:: :: ::

One second Helga was just laughing and chatting with her old roommates, the other she was on the toilet, feeling an incredible pain in her stomach.

"Are you okay, darling?" one of her friends said, but Helga couldn't answer her. In her heart she already knew what was happening, but in her stubborn mind, she didn't want to accept it.

"Somebody get someone from St. Mungo's here!" she heard someone else say. Even though it had costed some time for them to be there, to Helga it looked like everything happened really quickly. Suddenly Frank was there also and hold her.

"It's okay, everything is going to be okay," he whispered to her, but what did he know? He didn't feel what she was feeling. He didn't realize it like she realized it.

"I'm sorry, but you have to wait outside," she heard vaguely someone saying to Frank, probably.

"Hey man, what's going on?" she recognized Albus's voice, but then she didn't hear or feel anything. It was like she was suddenly...gone.

:: :: ::

"What's going on?" Albus said, but Frank wasn't able to react just yet.

"I...I don't really know, I don't understand. I have to talk to her parents...but I don't want to go away..." Frank spilled. There wasn't much left of the brave Auror he normally was.

"I'll do it. I'll send a patronus to them, don't worry Frank," Albus answered with a smile.

"What are you doing here actually, Al?" Frank asked surprised, half glad that he had somewhat of a distraction.

"Lily apparated without thinking about it, lost some blood and passed out, but she's going to be okay. She'll be a bit dizzy, the Healer said, but that's all," Albus said. He stood up and smiled at him.

"Wait here, I'll contact her parents," he said and walked away.

What was happening? What was happening to Helga? Why was she crying so hard? It wasn't like Helga to cry because of physical pain, so what was it? Half an hour ago he was making plans with Auror Potter Senior to look for Rose and now he was here. What was happening?


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Published**: June 18 (2016)

* * *

"We're really sorry..."

"We're doing everything we can..."

"There's nothing we can do..."

"If we could do anything we would..."

"She wants to see you, Mr Longbottem."

Frank didn't know what happening. This wasn't real...this wasn't happening. He felt an arm around him and when he turned around he saw it was her father. Lee Jordan tried to smile at him, failed a bit, but he did try.

"Go to her, Frank, talk to her," he said and Frank obliged. He slowly walked towards the room she was placed now. Not the emergency room anymore and her life wasn't in danger anymore. Her life never was in danger, no, it wasn't her life that was the dangerous one. When he came into her room, he found her sobbing in her bed and for the first time, he didn't saw her holding back. She was sobbing as loud as she could, because she didn't care if someone would judge her. She didn't care anymore at all.

"Frank," she whispered when she saw him and he immediately put his arms around her. He didn't ask her how she was holding up nor did he ask if she was okay. Both of them weren't okay or holding up in any way possible.

"I'm so sorry," she said softly, while she cried in his arms.

"Darling, it's not your fault," he whispered, while kissing her head.

"I lost my baby!" she cried out and the crying became worse. They both cried a lot and then it became suddenly really silent.

"We're going to get through this, Helga," he said, but she looked away.

"Maybe we were going too fast, Frank, maybe we should've taken our time by living together, marriage in a few years and then children," Helga whispered.

"What are you saying?" Frank asked surprised. First he lost his child, now his fiancé?

"I don't know Frank, it went all so fast and I just want to be able to look you in the eyes without seeing a child that isn't there," Helga cried. For a moment, Frank just breathed and thought about what he was going to say,

"Let's not rush into this, Helga, let's just survive one day and then another and then we'll see what will happen."

:: :: ::

"How's it going on the Auror-front?" Mary asked Kelsey really close towards Rose's prison.

"Great! The poison I gave my old-roommates who visited Helga last night, did exactly what it was supposed to do and Auror number one is taken down. I believe the cousin, Lily, did something stupid on her own - as I predicted as well - which means Auror number two is taken down too. This leaves my precious boyfriend and the older Aurors, who aren't as good as they think anymore," Kelsey answered and Mary grinned.

"I know we've got nothing to worry about, but it's better to be as safe as you can. Perfect job, Kelsey. You are a true Carrow," Mary said. Rose couldn't hear anything else, as the women had walked further and their voices became more vague. Poison? Helga? Rose knew that it would mean only one thing: Helga had lost her baby. Normally people could survive poison on several occasions, but it was never proven that their babies survived as well and as no one really wanted to test it...they had to assume babies wouldn't survive. It would be the only reason why Frank couldn't do his job. Lily however, was really able to do some stupid things. Maybe she wanted to fly or she was making a weird potion; with Lily you never knew. She always survived it though, so it wouldn't keep the others anymore to worry about her. Albus wouldn't leave her side though. This would mean that Scorpius was the only Auror from this mission and indeed the "older Aurors" (her father and uncle) to do the rest of the job. Her father wasn't even a full-time Auror too. After his first year of Auror-training, he decided to help uncle George with the joke shop. Of course her father was a good Auror, but still...his focus was somewhere else. She needed to bring herself towards a safe place. She'd been faking the _Petrificus Totals _spell for a while know and when she didn't saw anyone, she started to move. Her wand had of course been taken away from her, but maybe she could do with some proper thinking. Wandless magic wasn't something she was able to do, but she still had her mother's brains too. She really had nothing in this cell but herself. There weren't any guards of any sort, but just because she couldn't see them, didn't mean they weren't there. The Knights of Walpurgis were much bigger than anyone had expected. There were only a few people who really knew how big they were; she'd known it, Albus, Frank and...Scorpius. Scorpius. As much as she wanted to free herself by herself, without her wand it was practically impossible. Seeing how Kelsey was able to distract Frank and Albus, she needed Scorpius.

:: :: ::

He should go home. Like really, his house. The house he'd given Kelsey a key of and perhaps it was time to talk to her. It wasn't fair to her that he was leading her on, even though he didn't mean to. He'd really liked Kelsey, even though she was now kind of a rebound girl. She had been nice to him and he had to admit that she'd been a _great _bedpartner, but was that reason enough to let her stick around? Even though he would've said yes not so long ago, he knew better now. He _finally_ knew better. Was it possible that things wouldn't work out between him and Rose? Sure, it was even more possible than the two of them ever getting back together, but that was a risk he was willing to take and that said something. He was risking a shag for serious commitment, something not really Scorpius Malfoy-like.

So he went home, opened his door and discovered a huge mess. It looked like his whole house had been turned upside down. He discovered plates shattered all over the floor, mixed with cutlery, big knives and a vase. The flowers were slowly dying on the floor, withered and bleeding. It looked like there had been a huge fight down there, one he couldn't even remember.

"KELSEY!" he screamed. Where was she? Maybe she could explain all this - or maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all. She would want to know why he couldn't remember their fight. Why didn't he remember their fight? He walked upstairs to see his 'office' - as Kelsey had called it. Basically it was a room he wanted to go to whenever he needed some time alone and mostly he filled the silence with doing Auror-research. It was the first door you would see when arriving at the first floor and he never left the door open. Never. Now it was. Paperwork lied everywhere, like someone had been searching for something. His Auror-instinct took over and he sorted all his paperwork out. Lucky for him, he wasn't actually as messy at work as he was in his privet live. He liked everything exactly where it belonged and in one glance he knew that something was missing. The thief hadn't even been that smart - all the pieces about Mary Dolohov were missing. _All_ of it. Plus Kelsey, Kelsey was gone too. Maybe she was taken? By people who were protesting against Mary Dolohov? Maybe that was the reason Rose was gone as well? Scorpius breathed in and out really slowly and then decided to send an alarming patronus towards Auror Potter Senior. This was something new plus relating to Rose, so maybe something was actually happening and she needed help?

:: :: ::

"Al, go!" Lily insisted.

"But...No Lily! If dad knew you where here he would've never asked me to come this urgent! He would've been here too, actually!" Albus protested.

"Yeah and if you don't go, it's suspicious. You know dad and his drill, he'll already be suspicious enough that you didn't come right away!" Lily answered angrily.

"But, Lily! You're in a _hospital_ for Merlin's sake! I can't just leave you alone!" Albus protested again, which only made Lily more persistent.

"Lorcan is here, you see, and there's nothing wrong with me - all those Healers assured me of that. Go now!" Lily almost screamed. Lorcan next to her, was worrying that she used too much of her energy, just like Albus, who quickly sort-of calmed down.

"Nothing wrong with you? Merlin, there was always something wrong with you, we all knew it the minute you were born, but okay, if you say you're fine...I'm going. Lorcan, take good care of her," Albus demanded. Lorcan was startled by hearing suddenly his name.

"Yeah, of course," he mumbled.

"Great, good, see, I'm great here. I'm completely fine and there's nothing you need to worry about or tell mum and dad about!" Lily requested and Albus saluted.

"Alright m'lady, I'll be going then," and then he was gone.

Not more than five minutes earlier, a bright stag had run into Lily's hospital room. She immediately panicked; did their parents know about her stupid mistake? How? Who knew as well? But the stag wasn't looking for her, but for Albus.

"Albus, please come home as soon as you can, this is an emergency," said a voice in the stag. His father's voice. Bright, businesslike and calm, mostly not the way his father had reacted to an emergency. Most of the time he just stunted himself through it and afterwards he was even surprised at what he'd managed to do, but that man was the father he'd known when he was little. He'd grown up into someone who could manage emergencies. Someone who didn't stunt himself through his life.

"Dad? What's wrong?" Albus asked. The room he'd apparated in was full of people, mostly Auror's. Aurors like Scorpius, Aurors like his uncle Ron, but then also a few Aurors that Albus didn't know - even through his dad was Head of the Auror Department, there were quite a few Aurors Albus still didn't know. His dad walked towards him and started whispering.

"Albus, good that you're here. I heard from Scorpius that you went by to visit Rose and that she wasn't home and that you hadn't heard from her for quite some time. By the amount of suspicion he had, I guess that you send him here. Why didn't you come here yourself?" His father wasn't one for dodging questions and the truth, so Albus knew he couldn't just lie to his father.

"Something else came up, but that's solved now. So, why are so many people here?" Albus answered, hoping it was enough. It looked like half his old classmates from his Auror-education-days were present. Most of them didn't do as important projects as Scorpius, Frank and he did and some of them went to the administration office.

"Scorpius reported a burglary. Someone broke into his house a while ago and took all the papers regarding Mary Dolohov. Together with that are Rose and Kelsey both missing. Your uncle Ron and aunt Hermione haven't seen or spoken to Rose in the same amount of time as we did, but as busy as we are with living our lives, we all barely even noticed. To be fair, Rose has been released from all the hate for quite some time now and does need a privet live of her own and before all the hate there were times where we didn't see her for a month or so, but no one has seen her. Not you, not me, nor anyone else in the family. Also, her neighbors noticed that there wasn't any life left in her house, they just suspected that Rose was on holiday. All these people are here, because there's someone out there who's targeting the Knights of Walpurgis and to do so, you need to be smart, quick and good in your job. We need every eye, brain and ears we can get for this case to be able to find Rose and Kelsey. The sooner, the better. So, can you please get your case and research so we're able to find them?" It was a big story. Big, long and complicated, but not too much, so Albus got his stuff to finally start the most exciting mission he ever had, but it wasn't until he was having a break with Scorpius and some old classmates that he realized what kind of background research he really needed to do.

"So, your girlfriend is missing, eh, mate?" someone said and Scorpius looked up.

"Yes, I guess so. She won't answer anything and our house kinda looks like a hot mess," he answered sadly.

"Are you sure she isn't somewhere else, screwing him or so?" another joined in, but Scorpius just laughed.

"Who's your girl actually?" one of the administration girls asked.

"Why?" Scorpius rebounded, not really knowing where she was going to.

"Well, we're looking for your girl, but it would really help if you could tell us something more about her. Her last name, for example?" the another girl said and that got Albus thinking.

"I...I don't know..." Scorpius ashamedly admitted.

"Now I know why she left," the guys laughed, but the girls were serious.

"Any other information you can give us?" they asked, but Albus wasn't listening to their answers anymore. They always needed to do a background check on everyone; the innocent and the culprit, everyone. Kelsey naturally had always been Kelsey, no questions asked. No 'who's your mother' or 'who's your father' or 'where did you grew up'. Maybe they'd gotten so used to the fact that they knew everyone literally from birth that he hadn't realized Kelsey wasn't like that. With Scorpius not even knowing his own girlfriend's last name, how did it even came into her mind to marry? How well did the two of them really know each other? And who was Kelsey?


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Published**: June 23 (2016)

* * *

Lorcan was pissed. Not so much as an hour ago, but he was still partly pretty much pissed. His colleagues knew well enough that his fiancé was in the hospital, but they still insisted he had to work. Lily agreed with them, of course, telling him she wasn't worth losing his job over - o boy did he disagree. His job became slightly better when he got to work on Helga Jordan's case. She lost her baby because she had taken some kind of unknown poison and Cedric was now interviewing her, which was taking very long. Long enough for Lorcan to walk towards the cafeteria, only to discover that some other girls were taken in after passing out. When he heard a Healer saying it was because of a potion, Lorcan went down to the administration office to ask some more questions. The girls had been downstairs the whole time, because they were waiting for their friend Helga, when slowly the girls had passed out with little time in between. It would be very 'accidental' that Helga ánd her friends were passing out - which caused Helga to lose her baby. Potion often was stuffed into drinks or food, but the girls wouldn't deliberately potion their friend and theirselves, right?

Lorcan had been upstairs waiting for Cedric five more minutes more after his coffee break, but that was enough. His brother was an Auror - not really an important one, but good enough to convince Lorcan that most accidents, weren't accidents. So he walked down towards the room where the girls were resting now. Just like Helga, they were healed in no time and thus Lorcan was permitted to go in and talk to the girls.

"You're Katie, right?" he asked, when he walked in. The girl smiled and sat up.

"Yeah, often confused with Kelsey, but only because of our names," she laughed. Katie had long brown hair and an olive skin, but she looked a lot whiter because of the passing out.

"I have a few questions - I'm Healer Scamander and I'm busy researching your friend Helga. By now I think you all know that you've been poisoned?" Lorcan said professionally and Katie nodded.

"Helga's situation is a bit more complicated as she was pregnant when she was poisoned. Do you have any idea what it was that could've poisoned you?" he continued, hoping that she would understand the medical reasons behind his questions.

"I don't Helga has any poison in her home - I mean, she's almost a Healer too, you know and she wouldn't just take any poison into her home. Plus, we checked everything we took with us in our basket we gave to Helga, so I actually have no clue," Katie said, but she looked sad saying that.

"I wish I knew what it was, I feel so incredibly stupid and I feel like we all killed Helga's baby," she admitted slowly.

"But Kate, the last drink we drunk was from that wine bottle from Kelsey, we didn't check that one," a girl had walked into the room, just like the other girls.

"Sorry, we heard you two talking over here and we wanted to help," another girl said.

"Yeah of course we didn't check the bottle, because Kelsey told us it wasn't wine, because she knew Helga couldn't have wine," Katie said a bit angry.

"Slow down, why didn't Kelsey give the bottle to Helga herself?" Lorcan asked, while the puzzle slowly started to fit.

"Because there was something up with her boyfriend. He was finally showing up or something, after being gone for so long, so she asked us to give it to her," the first girl said.

"Sorry, who's her boyfriend again?" he asked. Maybe it was a jealous boyfriend or something that somehow wanted to do something strange to Helga.

"Scorpius Malfoy - I'm surprised you didn't know, it's all over the news," the second girl giggled.

"I'm not someone to keep track on stuff like that," Lorcan laughed softly. As far as he knew Malfoy, he wouldn't do that. He was like an older brother to Lily and somehow somewhere Helga was too. He'd always seen them on the huge family-friends gatherings they had.

"You said something about him missing?" Lorcan asked then. Malfoy missing? The last he heard of him he was staying with Albus, which was something Kelsey would've known, right?

"Kelsey doesn't really talk about it, but they had some sort of fight and Scorpius said he needed a break and then he totally disappeared," Katie said, but she gave him a strange look.

"Is this still about the posion, or are you afraid someone did this on purpose?" her friend asked for her.

"No, I'm sorry, I have enough information right now, thank you all!" Lorcan said and he walked away. Kelsey hadn't known that Malfoy was staying with Albus, so the only source for the posion was Kelsey herself. This wasn't a case for him anymore, he needed to tell this to his brother.

:: :: ::

"Auror Potter? Auror Potter?" To his annoyance, Albus discovered yet again that both he and his father had looked up to Lysander Scamander - and the guy immediately corrected himself.

"Auror Potter Senior?" Lysander said, but Albus saw his father pointing at him to come along.

"Yes Lysander, what is it?" his father asked and Lysander shared his information.

"So my brother Lorcan is an Healer, right? He's helping Helga Jordan, because she was poisoned and..."

"I'm sorry Lysander, but we don't have that much time, how does this connect to Rose?" his father interrupted.

"I'm coming to that. Not only Helga was poisoned, but her friends as well. Her friends are quite alright, while Helga lost her baby - which is the reason why Auror Longbottem hasn't shown up yet. The thing is, Helga is an Healer too, so she wouldn't have a poison in her house plus her friends checked all their gifts to make sure there wouldn't be any harmful stuff inside. They checked all the things, except for one: a bottle given by Kelsey. Kelsey wasn't able to attend this meeting herself, because her boyfriend - Auror Malfoy - was home after being away for a long time, but this is where it doesn't fit with what Auror Malfoy told us: he said last time he'd seen Kelsey was before he took his break and when he came home he found his house being a mess and Kelsey being gone. So, someone is lying, either Kelsey or Auror Malfoy or those girls, but my money is on Kelsey, because Auror Malfoy swore an oath like all of us and all those girls's stories matches," Lysander said. Albus sighted and his father sat back down in his chair, thinking about what this could mean.

"We need to talk to those girls, of course, because your brother did a good job, but it _wasn't_ his job, so we'll need to ask them officially. We have to find the motive why someone would poison Helga and someone needs to talk to Auror Malfoy," his father said calm.

"If Kelsey did it, dad, then I think I know why," Albus said agitated. This case had some continuity - they finally found some new information and hopefully it would be able to track down...Rose?

"Well, why do you think? Besides guys, it is very helpful to know this, because now we know that Rose and Kelsey haven't been kidnapped by the same person, but it still doesn't help us any further on where Rose is," his father had concluded the same thing as he did, but maybe they would find something, because maybe he was right.

"Frank is a mess right now and the only reason good enough that Frank won't work is if something's wrong with Helga. Helga won't let Frank's job be less important than her if it wouldn't be for the fact that she's very badly injured. By giving Helga this poison, Frank won't work and that slows everything down, because we all know he's a very good Auror. Someone really doesn't want us to be on our best, because then we can find something they don't want us to find. The thing is, we're looking for Rose and why wouldn't they want us to look at Rose? So I think Kelsey and Rose do have some things in common, but they're not on each other's side," Albus said. His father nodded proudly and sat down in his chair again.

"What motive would Kelsey have to kidnap - or to let someone else kidnap - Rose?" he asked and Albus shrugged.

"I don't know. The both of them are in love with Scorpius, but I don't think that's reason enough for someone to kidnap Rose. Thereby Rose has a lot of enemies right now, so it could be anybody," Albus sighted. No, they weren't getting any closer to finding Rose, they were only getting further from it.

:: :: ::

"She WHAT?!" Scorpius exclaimed. Kelsey had been a weird girl, but in a good way. Not this...weird?

"Shush, we don't know it for sure, we guess this could be a lead, if only Rose hadn't have a thousand enemies," Albus said, but Scorpius couldn't really calm down.

"It's all my fault, I let Kelsey closer to her than anyone else. Besides Al, those enemies you're talking about, they wanted her dead. They wanted to have her and they were proud that their names we in the paper for trying to do attack her. They would do this without remorse. We probably already would've gotten a letter that we could exchange her for a lot of money. Those people were like that, they would do things like that. This doesn't seem to have any logic at all and I need to sit down," Scorpius sighted and he let himself fall into the nearest couch. Kelsey had been a nice girl, very sweet, but very demanding and even though he was always distracted when he was with her, she never left. Loyal, yes, she had been loyal. He had to go to the administration girls where he'd asked if they could find any information about Kelsey that he didn't know about, because apparently he'd missed out on a lot. He didn't even know her exact age and birthday and her last name was still a mystery to him. How could he? He knew exactly who the other people where in his life. He knew Albus's, Frank's Merlin even Rose's life better than anyone would've expected. If one of them would be murdered he could point out every spot that was naturally there and every strange spot. If one of them would murder someone - let's say strangle them - he could probably recognize their hands as bruises on the victim's body. How could he not know Kelsey that well? What was wrong with him? When he looked at Albus he saw that he was asking himself the same thing. It had been strange that ever since that break conversation with a group of old friends, he'd realized how bad they'd known each other.

"Kelsey's mom is dead, I know that," Scorpius suddenly mentioned.

"What?" Albus asked surprised.

"I just remembered actually. I was thinking about what I did know and I discovered that she'd said she wanted me to introduce to her father and I'd asked her why not to her mother. She's dead. Kelsey said she'd kept her mom close ever since then," Scorpius said slowly.

"She talked about a lot of things, but not about her mother. Maybe she was ashamed of her. Maybe her mom was...o Merlin," Scorpius gasped.

"What? What is it?" Albus asked.

"My father once told me that a lot of Death Eaters were having kids with muggles, because they realized they were going to die soon and wanted their spirit to live forward with new people and it was easier to drop those kids with muggles, as they wouldn't be really that much involved in the war with the wizards - if they wouldn't involve theirselves, that is; which is how the Knights of Walpurgis arose, but there were a few female Death Eaters who did the same thing as the guys, but it was obviously more visible. Most woman were killed by Voldemort for doing that, but few of the already few woman survived it. I think one of them could be Kelsey's mother, because she didn't want to talk about her mother. She was convinced her mom was a good person underneath, that was what she always said. I do know so many people who're like that - I myself used to talk about my grandmother that way. A good person underneath, but above that they look like really bad Death Eaters, so I guess Kelsey's mom is a Death Eater," Scorpius concluded. It was strange how it all seemed to fit. Not the first time something looked like it fit so well, but only on paper. Maybe they were wrong, maybe it wasn't like this at all, but it was worth trying. Somewhere he was a bit proud, because he'd actually tried to listen to Kelsey's conversations and he hadn't been a complete ass. He did know _something_ about her and he still knew where to raise his eyebrows.

It wasn't even an hour later that Albus came running down towards Scorpius.

"They found her, they found her mom," he panted.

"Who is it?" Scorpius asked impatient.

"Alecto Carrow."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19 \\\ New Year's Eve \\\ WICELA

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Harry Potter series nor everything that comes with it. The rights go to J.K. Rowling. The only things I own are the holes in her stories that I filled with my fantasies.

**Published**: September 15 (2016)

* * *

The more Rose thought about her plan, the more she got excited again. Scorpius wasn't the only one she needed, she needed her little brother as well. Hugo Weasley had ended up in Ravenclaw, but persuaded a career in Quidditch, like James. Hugo wasn't a Seeker and a ladies-man (like James), but a soft hearted Keeper that wasn't as soft on the Quidditch field as he was in real life. He used his brains on the field, as he managed to combine being extremely logical with amazing reflexes and he really enjoyed the game. Scorpius had been a decent Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team - Rose only knew because she watched loyally all the games when on of her family members was playing (to be honest, that meant all of them). This mission was only going to work with quick flying and quick wand work. Hugo and Scorpius could make an undeniably good team, if only they felt some connection that could make them think about this on their own. They both were smart enough to, once they got to know each other, they should work together. Rose had hated Scorpius for a very long time and thereby Albus had told her a lot about him, to show them how similar they were. Rose knew that she needed time with Scorpius to make everything work, not only on paper, but in the real world. They could be good on paper, but both their tempers could stop them from being good in the real world. She couldn't deny the fact that she did know this guy very well, but her feelings - and finally admitting and accepting these feelings - for him, scared her. He wasn't just some guy to her, he was special and maybe she shouldn't think about it so much, but she was just looking for a way where she wouldn't get hurt. Hopefully Scorpius wouldn't act like his proud self and Hugo wouldn't act like the overprotective brother much, because there would be a chance for the two of them to actually talk and discover their powers. It was funny how hard she'd tried not to feel what she was currently feeling. Being with him made her feel more. In the beginning she was only angrier and more frustrated, but later on stupidly more foolish and slightly happier. She didn't even want to admit the strange butterfly-feeling in her stomach. Being in this prison, she'd fantasized a lot about the two of them together. Them teasing each other, laughing, kissing, falling in love. She knew it wasn't the reality, but it made her happy. It was the only thing that prevented her from going insanely crazy and thinking no-one would be willing to save her.

Stop...she needed to stop that. She was a good girl, strong and independent. Did she really need a man to help her out? Maybe she did, but she couldn't just give up and go on like this, could she? What kind of woman was she, declaring to the world how independent a woman could be and never even showing some kind of example of that? That just wasn't the way it should be! Luckily, she did have an advantage while she showed Kelsey and Mary she'd given up. They probably laughed about her in their "I-am-a-leader-and-I-show-off"-room. Every leader had such a place; every minister had a Ministry of Magic and Voldemort just stole the manor of the Malfoy's. The only thing now she had to do, was pretending to be dead. Maybe that would be the hardest task of all. How could she possibly brew the Draught of Living Dead in secret? Perhaps she could use her bowl as a kettle, and the ingredients had to be around somewhere. The Sopophorous bean was something they'd putten into her food. This way she was more sleepy and would pay less attention. She'd discovered this bean at her first day and started to gather them, because she wanted to stay sharp. The root of Asphodel wouldn't be that difficult either, now Rose started to think of it. Mary seemed to get a lot of Lilies from her admirers - so many, that she started to fill the dungeon with them. A helpful guard could help her with that, a sloth brain, an Infusion of Wormwood and a silver knife. He would probably have a silver knife in his pocket, as it was considered a very handy weapon which most wizard wouldn't think of having. If she'd manage to even brew the potion, the biggest question was if she'd done it right. She wasn't sure about the way to brew the potion and if she'd remembered all of the ingredients. If she made this potion and it went wrong...it would mean her death.

:: :: ::

Scorpius usually wasn't an impatient man. He could sit down at a pub and be waiting for hours until his best friend joined him. It wasn't because of all the ladies who'd begged for his company, but that surely was flattering. Nowadays, Scorpius _was_ indeed an impatient man. It had been a good few weeks since they last had a new lead. Alecto Carrow was his ex-girlfriend's mother - there hadn't been a break-up yet, officially, but with everything going on, Scorpius just couldn't think of her as his actual girlfriend. What he'd ever seen in her...? Alecto Carrow led Kelsey to Mary Dolohov and that made all the sense in the world. Mary had taken an huge advantage of Rose which would probably lead to killing Rose and declaring to England that it was a sacrifice to be made and that she _would_ listen to her people. The Minister of Magic, her mother, was already under questioning, because how could people actually entrust her as Minister, when her own daughter defends the worst of people? Mary would declare that she, indeed, started this mission with the wrong intentions, but after a treatment by Rose, she saw that people who meant harm, could easily take over. She never intended to harm everyone, only to scare and discovered that her experiment succeeded. She was here to create a better world. Scorpius knew of this kind of talk. He'd heard his father talk about this, when he talked about his past. A better world was always the thing everyone aimed on, but would that always be the solution? Scorpius knew how to think as Mary, because he was trained to do so. His father and during his training as an Auror, he'd learned all these kind of things and he'd never expected to use them in this kind of way. This was intense. He really had to get into her head, almost if he'd become her. Together with Albus and his father, they'd figured this whole plot out, but they didn't know where Mary, Kelsey or Rose was and they did a good job at hiding themselves.

"Where are you, Rose?" Scorpius whispered. He'd found a muggle map in her house, when they were looking for clues. Scorpius knew that Rose didn't have a really special connection with that map, but for Scorpius it meant the world. She'd hold it and showed him from time to time where she wanted to travel to and what she wanted to see. There had been a time where they could almost call themselves friends and Scorpius missed that so, so much. He also marked places where Rose could and couldn't be. Auror Potter Senior had said that if they were smart, they kept moving. Albus's response had been that it was fairly difficult to move a group that big and kept being unnoticed. They'd assumed that they would stay put on the same place, until something would happen, but Scorpius didn't know if he would like something to happen...

:: :: ::

"So, are you okay?" Lorcan asked Lily, for what seemed the millionth time.

"Yes, I'm okay and the baby is okay and they told me it won't be long," Lily said. She giggled a bit; boy was she nervous for that time.

"It'll be okay, Lils, we're going to face this together!" Lorcan assured her, placing his hand on her belly. It was incredibly huge and he couldn't believe he was almost going to be a father.

"And we'll get married when I finally lost all those mommy-fats, otherwise I won't look the right part on our wedding," Lily demanded. It was nice, knowing that Lorcan would always be there for her and their baby. It was more than she could ever dream of and she knew it had been childish to walk away and think he wouldn't give her that. She'd needed the space and time, though, because she didn't know if she could've faced the situation in the same way if she hadn't.

"You always look beautiful, you know that right?" Lorcan said sweetly. He kissed her cheek and saw her drifting off again.

"I love you," Lily answered softly, before falling asleep. Luckily, everything had been alright. The baby was alright, they were alright and Lily was alright. He loved the girl he was holding, so much and he didn't know what to do without her. It was terrible to see what had happened to Helga and Frank. Helga had left the hospital and everything that had a connection to either Frank or Kelsey. She felt betrayed by someone she'd called a friend, but everyone could see she couldn't face Frank. This could've happened to them as well, to him and Lily, but it didn't and Lorcan was so grateful for it. How could he ever be without her and without the baby they were having? All the drama in the world sort of passed by him, as he was amazingly distracted. It sounded very soppy, but all of his dreams were soon coming true and he'd never felt better. Such a strange time to feel so happy, but he just couldn't do much else.

"Lorcan? Can we steal you for a moment?" a nurse said to him. Lorcan nodded, gave Lily a kiss and left the room smiling.

:: :: ::

Helga wasn't answering any of his letters, knocks on the door, floo-calls or anything else he tried. After she'd left the hospital, she immediately went to her parents and Frank just couldn't reach her. Denial had been the first state and so many mornings he'd woken up and thought it was a nightmare. Anger came when he realised it was indeed true and he started to realise Helga also didn't want to see him anymore. How could she not understand that they were going through this together? It wasn't only _her_ child she lost..._they_ lost _their _child. Together. Bargaining happened when he started to contact her parents and tried to let them talk to Helga, but Frank had never seen Lee Jordan in such a sour stage. Depression snuck upon him without him even noticing. He cried like a baby and he just really needed his fiancé or his best friend, but both were unavailable. To his surprise came the two guys he'd never expected to be there for him and they didn't make fun of his grieve. They did all the things you need to do after losing someone: drinking, crying, hurting, letting it all out and making the mistakes you need to make to in the end, end up accepting it all. It happened and it was the most shit thing ever, but he needed to move on. It was still very hard, but he couldn't let his best friend down. He needed her, but she needed him as well, so he needed to put all his energy in saving his best friend.


End file.
